The Timeless Tale
by CleveristWitchHerAge
Summary: HBP spoilers! Finished! James, Lily, and Sirius are sent to the future. When they get there, they find many questions and many revelations. They also find Harry and his friends are very secretive. The answer to that leads to a very unexpected adventure.
1. The Second Battle

Chapter 1

The Second Battle

"Oh please don't be dead! I can't loose you!" a boy called out as he was running as fast as his legs would carry him toward a girl lying motionless on the ground a few feet ahead. Suddenly, a man in a black mask it jumped in his way. "Avada Kedavara!" he shouted. The boy stared at the Death Eater and watched the green light speed past his dirty face.

"Go get her!" a man shouted at the boy as he jumped in front of him and fought the Death Eater, giving him a path to reach his destination. The boy wasted no time. He ran off down the hill as fast as he could go. He ran so fast, his legs gave way and he rolled down to the bottom of the hill.

"Lily, Lily! Please, answer me!" the boy sat on his knees as he cradled the girl in his arms.

"Is she alright?" another boy asked. He looked the same age as the other and had the same black hair as the first, although his was longer.

"She's not answering me, Sirius!" the first man said fearfully.

"Here, I'll help you get her up to the castle. You two need to get somewhere safe. He's after both you and Lily, James."

"I know," James said.

James picked Lily up and started running up the hill, with Sirius right behind him. Suddenly, they stopped dead when they heard a familiar, terrifying scream. It was the scream of someone transforming into a monster. It was their friend, Remus, turning into a werewolf.

"It's a full moon! How could we have forgotten?" Sirius looked at his friend. "I'll go help Remus while you take Lily." Sirius ran off and altered himself into a big, black dog.

James turned around and headed back up the hill. He reached the top, but he still had a long way to go before he could escape the forest that seemed to be closing in around him. James hurried on, but stopped when he heard a frantic dog's barking. He knew who it was. He slowly turned around and saw a humongous werewolf running at him! He turned around to sprint the other way, but saw he was trapped! He laid his eyes on the evil that was Lord Voldemort for the second time in his life. He had felt this man's evil when Voldemort had killed his parents and Lily's. He felt it when he was chained to a rock as he was forced to make a decision – become a Death Eater or watch his girlfriend die. He hated this man who caused so much misery in the lives of all who came into contact with him; even those who never saw him face to face felt his wrath. Everyone was scared of him; most were even afraid to speak his name, but James wasn't.

"Voldemort!" he shouted.

James was stuck. He gently laid Lily on the ground and pulled out his wand. He cast a shield around himself and Lily as Voldemort and Remus the werewolf came at him. As Remus ran at him, he broke off a tree branch in an effort to get at him. Sirius was trying to hold the werewolf back from his friends, but was having trouble. James' shield was weakening. Then, the werewolf picked up the dog and threw it at James. The force knocked James over, destroying the shield. Voldemort had been waiting for this. He pointed his wand at them and muttered something under his breath.

James watched as swirling red and black clouds surround the three. James started coughing; Sirius, who had turned back into his human form, and Lily were unconscious on the ground. James fought to stay awake, but his vision faded, as did the sound of Voldemort's cruel, cold laughter.


	2. What is Going On?

Chapter 2

What is Going On?

James groaned and tried to open his eyes. What had happened? Where was he? Then, he heard a voice speak. _Wait a minute!_ He thought. He knew that voice!

"Lily?" he asked.

"James! You're alright!" Lily leaned down and kissed him, delighted to see the love of her life living and well.

"Prongs, we were a bit scared you wouldn't wake up," Sirius smiled as James opened his eyes.

"Well, I'm up," he said as he stood. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Lily said. James looked around. He saw they were exactly where they had been the night before. The only thing different was it looked like last night hadn't happened at all. The trees were in perfect condition; the tree Remus had hit wasn't damaged at all. There wasn't any indication that a battle had taken place the night before. And he knew their friends wouldn't have left them there to die. They would have taken them up to the castle. Where was everyone?

"We had better get up to the castle and talk to Professor Dumbledore now and find out what happened," Lily said.

"I agree," James said. "I want to know why we're still out here. It looks like it's almost dinner time."

The three walked back up to the school and came through the Entrance Hall. They saw Professor McGonagall, the Transfiguration teacher, walking down the stairs and James ran up to her.

"Professor McGonagall, we need to see Professor Dumbledore," James said.

The professor's face suddenly turned into a mixture of shock and anger towards James at this request. "Mr. Potter! How dare you do such a thing! Especially since it was you who proclaimed to everyone Professor Dumbledore is dead! How could you say such a thing!"

"What!" James exclaimed. "When did this happen? Who did it?"

"I am appalled at you! Look Potter, ignoring it is not going to do anything to help us get over it. Now, please go to the Great Hall and join Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger. And get some rest please. You don't look well, and you also don't sound too well," the professor said addressing the fact that he had ignored Dumbledore's death.

James stared at the professor as she walked into the Great Hall.

"I don't look well, because I was just in a battle against Voldemort!" he said to himself.

Just then, Lily and Sirius walked up to James and Sirius said, "Prongs, who're Weasley and Granger?"

"Sirius! How could that be the first thing out of your mouth? We just found out Dumbledore died last night in the fight with Voldemort!" Lily exclaimed.

"Look, McGonagall said I told everyone he died. I know for a fact I would never pretend he was dead and I know I didn't tell anyone that anyway. So it couldn't have been me."

"Who else then?" Lily asked.

"I don't know. C'mon. Let's go look for Moony and Wormtail. I want to see if they're alright."

"They're probably in the Hospital Wing, don't you think?" Lily said.

"Remus would. Last night was a full moon."

Lily gasped. "And he was in the battle! Did Voldemort see?"

"He saw a werewolf, but I'm not sure if he knows who it is."

They walked toward the Hospital Wing and discovered it was empty.

"That's odd," James said.

"Maybe they're in the Great Hall?" Sirius suggested.

The three walked into the Great Hall, expecting people to be on edge from the previous night's events and upset over Dumbledore's death, but found it not to be.

"Why is everyone being so calm?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know," James said. "Oh, you guys go ahead. I've got to go check on something in my room. I'll be right back."

"Alright. We'll see you in a minute," Lily said. Sirius and Lily walked to the Gryffindor table and looked around.

"Do you see Remus or Peter?" Sirius asked.

"No. I don't see Julie or Cassie either. Maybe they're in the common room."

"Well, I'm not going to look anymore. I'm going to eat first!" Sirius said.

They sat down together and served themselves some food. Sirius started his usual ritual to see how much chicken he could shove in his mouth at the same time and in the process making so much noise, he called the whole Gryffindor table's attention to himself. They all watched in silent awe as Sirius crammed more chicken into his mouth.

"What?" he asked. "I've eaten like this for seven years! Why the sudden interest now?" he asked still with his mouth full, so no one understood him. Suddenly, they heard a boy give out a small yelp followed by a crash. Everyone in the Great Hall turned their heads from Sirius to the boy who had fallen over as if all the students made up one person.

"Harry, are you alright?" a red headed girl asked. "What happened?"

"I thought I was over it….I thought I could handle….he's not….he's dead…."

"Harry, are you sure your okay?" a girl with bushy brown hair asked.

"You thought you could handle what?" a boy with hair as red as the girl's asked, trying to find some answers.

"Nothing. I…I just think I need to go and rest." Harry said and headed out of the Great Hall, followed by three people. Sirius tried to get a good look at the boy but couldn't; there were too many people in the way.

When everything had calmed down, Sirius turned towards Lily and asked, "Do you know who that was?"

"No, I don't. Are you done yet?"

"I guess I could be…."

"Then come on!" Lily said, pulling Sirius behind her.


	3. More Questions

Chapter 3

More Questions

When they left the Great Hall, Lily called after a girl with red hair who looked to be about sixth year. The girl turned around and looked at her with a question in her brown eyes. "Yes?"

"I was wondering if you knew who that boy was."

"What boy?"

"The boy in the Great Hall that sort of had a fit or something. Weren't you the girl that left with him?"

"Yes, I was, and are you telling me that you don't know who that boy was? You must seriously be joking. Everyone knows who he is."

"We don't. Now would you kindly explain who he is," Sirius said, smiling at the girl.

The girl opened her mouth to speak to Sirius, but stopped. "Do I know you? You look very familiar."

"I don't think we've met, because I'm sure I would remember you," Sirius said.

The girl laughed. "For your information, I have a boyfriend and he happens to be the boy you are asking about. His name is Harry Potter."

Lily and Sirius stared at her. "Harry Potter? I've never heard of him," Lily said.

"Look, unless your muggle born and in first year, which you're obviously not, then you would know who he is. Pick up any Daily Prophet and he's mentioned somewhere. They can't seem to print a paper without mentioning him. Thanks to them, he's now not only known as the Boy Who Lived, but also the Chosen One. I really don't like answering these questions, all right. If you want to know who he is, ask him yourself. He's grown quite used to people asking him questions, if he can find time to answer them," she said and walked off.

"Well, that was interesting," Sirius said. "Have you ever heard of a Harry Potter before?"

Lily shook her head. "I'm pretty sure James is the only Potter at Hogwarts. And we know he's not related to him because James is the only Potter left."

"Hey! Wait up!" they heard James call. "I went back to the Great Hall but you weren't there."

"Sorry, something happened while we were in the Great Hall and went to ask someone about it. We got a really weird answer," Lily said.

"Yeah, we think you're not the only kid named Potter, Prongs." James gave Sirius and inquisitive look. "His name's Harry Potter. Ring any bells?"

"No," he said slowly. "If there is, wouldn't we have heard of him? We've been here for seven years. We watched the sorting—"

"I watched the sortings. You two were either talking, playing, or sleeping."

"Okay, whatever. Well, you watched the sorting and never heard of another Potter and there isn't another Potter in our year."

"But I asked someone if they knew who this kid was that had a fit in the Great Hall. She said he was Harry _Potter_."

"The kid was lying."

"What possible reason would she have for lying?"

"I don't know."

"Maybe she doesn't like you," Sirius interjected playfully.

"Thank you, Sirius, for that encouraging statement," Lily said without looking at him.

"Lils, did you change the password to our dorms?" James asked, changing the subject.

"No, I didn't. Why?"

"It's not working. The guy won't let me in."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked.

"I mean the guy won't let me in!"

"Show me."

The three made their way to the heads dorms and Lily walked up to the man in the portrait.

"_Firelight_," she said.

"Good gracious! This boy behind you just tried that! I told him that's not the password!"

"Told you," James said.

"Let's just go to the common room then," Sirius said. James turned to follow, but Lily stayed behind.

"You coming, Lils?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute," she said with her eyes glued to the portrait.

James looked at Sirius and shrugged as they walked to the common room.

"Firelight," Lily said again.

"Did you not hear me the first time? I told you that was not the password! That is NOT the password! It is nowhere near the password! And it never will be the password! No matter how many times you say it, it will not change!"

"Sorry," Lily said as she turned around and walked off.


	4. Confusion

Chapter 4

Confusion

Lily walked towards the common room, thinking. _Why wouldn't it work? What is happening? _She continued to walk when she heard something smashing to the ground. She turned around and noticed it was coming from around the corner. She pulled out her wand, her mind drifting to last night and slowly crept toward the person breaking things. She turned the corner and straitened up immediately.

"James Potter! What on earth are you doing?"

He stopped.

"You can't just go around breaking things! You're Head Boy for goodness sake! You haven't acted like this for months! Are you setting up for a prank? If you are, where's Sirius? I'm sure he'd like to help! I thought you changed! You need to—" she stopped. This boy was not James Potter. He grabbed her wrists and pushed her against the wall.

"Don't you dare mention Sirius Black ever again! You have no idea how great a person he was! You have no right to…to… no! Not again! You're not supposed to be here! You're supposed to be…Get away from me! All of you leave me alone!" he said as he ran off.

Lily watched him for a minute in a daze, and then she snapped to her senses. "Wait!" she called. She hoped she hadn't offended him. She wanted to make sure he was all right. She ran down the hall after him. He was running toward the Heads Dorm. Lily barely heard him utter the password, "_Magic_" as he slipped through the portrait. When Lily got to the portrait, she repeated him.

"You finally got it right!" the portrait said as he opened.

Lily walked into the common room and looked for the boy. She suddenly gasped. On the golden plates above the two bedrooms, there no longer were the names Lily and James. They were Ron and Hermione. She was snapped out of her surprise when she heard voices coming from behind the door underneath the name Ron.

"Are you sure, Harry?" a girl said.

_So that was Harry! _Lily thought.

"Harry, that's impossible," another girl said. "I really don't think you saw your mother. I mean, she's dead."

"I know, Hermione!" Harry said. "But I saw her! I touched her! She was real! She called me James! And Sirius…he was eating! The food was disappearing! Don't tell me you couldn't see him! Everyone was watching him!"

"We didn't see him," a boy said.

"I'm telling you, he was there! If it wasn't the real Sirius, then who was it?"

"Maybe it was a trick.. Maybe it's a Death Eater or something," the boy suggested.

"Brilliant, Ron!" Hermione said sarcastically. "Unless one of the Death Eaters can transform himself into a totally different person without a polyjuce potion, then I don't see how someone could turn into Sirius. And they couldn't use the potion to transform because they can't get one of his hairs."

"Then there's got to be another explanation for it," the other girl said.

"Look, maybe you're right. Maybe I just imagined it," Harry said. "Maybe I need some rest. I think I'm going to go to bed,"

"Here, Harry, why don't you sleep in here tonight? Maybe it would be better if you had some privacy."

"Alright. Goodnight."

"Goodnight." The three responded.

Lily heard shuffling from behind the door. She knew she was in trouble now. They would see her behind the door, listening. She turned around darted toward the couch in front of the fireplace and hid out of sight.

When the three friends had left Harry and had exited through the portrait, Lily got up and followed them. She wanted to know more about Harry Potter who was so perplexed and shocked at seeing Sirius and herself.

She got close enough so she could hear them, but not too close as to draw suspicion to her.

"He was perfectly fine last week, yesterday even," the girl with brown hair said.

"I wonder if he really is seeing Lily and Sirius. Maybe he's just stressed out over not being able to find out where the last horcrux is. Remember, he wanted to find out all he could before Christmas, then start destroying them. Maybe that's why he's seeing them. He just wants a reminder of people he's lost that he loves. I think it's just his imagination."

"But Ginny, wouldn't it have happened before now?" Ron asked.

"Well, Christmas is only a week away and we still have a lot of work to do."

"How is finding out where the gold locket is a lot do, Hermione?"

"Really, Ron? We have to figure out who R.A.B. is, then figure out where he or she took it, and whether or not it hasn't been destroyed already," said Hermione.

"But what if he really did see Sirius? What if he's back? Harry would be so happy," Ginny said, hopefully.

"Yes, but if it were Sirius, then he would have run up to Harry and told him," Ron said.

"Oh! I want the old Harry back!" Hermione wailed. "I want the Harry who didn't know about the prophecy or Voldemort! It's his entire fault! If Voldemort hadn't come back in our fourth year, then Harry might be different!"

"But Dumbledore would have told him the prophecy eventually anyway. I mean, he is the only one who can defeat Voldemort," Ginny said.

"Well, yes, I suppose. Well, let's get back to what happened today. He said he saw Lily as well, didn't he?"

"Yeah, that's why he told us, remember?" Ron said. "He said he thought he had just been imagining Sirius, but when he saw her, he decided maybe it was something more."

"I still think he believes he saw them. I'll bet he even hopes his dad is here too. He's always wanted to meet him," Ginny said.

Hermione nodded. They had now approached the portrait of the Fat Lady and Hermione said the password. "_Bravery._"

Lily watched Harry's three friends disappear into their dormitories and then spotted James and Sirius sitting by the fire.

"Lily, what were you doing?" James asked. "You were gone for ages."

"I found Harry Potter."

"You found him?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, and he acted really strange when he saw me. It might be because I started yelling at him. It was really weird. He was making a whole lot of noise. That's what drew my attention to him. I thought he was you, James. He looks exactly like you. Anyway, he turned and looked at me and started yelling at me, and then he suddenly backed off. It was like he couldn't believe he was seeing me. It was sort of like what he said in the Great Hall. He was stuttering and shaking his head as he let go of my wrists—"

"Wait! Did he hurt you?"

Lily suddenly realized what she had said. She hadn't meant to say that. She knew how James would react. "No, James, look—"

"I knew this guy sounded like trouble!"

"James, he's just going through a hard time. I overheard part of what he has to deal with. He has Voldemort trying to kill him because of some prophecy, he has had people he loves die, he's had—"

"I've had people I love die! And I don't go around attacking other people!"

"James, he didn't attack me! I think there's something we don't know about him or any of them. This is just too weird. I think Voldemort did something to us last night."

"What? What do you think he did? You know what? Maybe this kid, this Harry Potter is something of Voldemort's! Maybe he was sent here to spy on us or, or confuse us! Yeah, that kid was sent here to hurt us! Like you said, he grabbed your wrists!"

"James, that makes no sense!"

"Prongs, she's right. It doesn't make—"

"How dare you take her side! That boy is evil!"

"You know nothing about him!"

"Oh yeah? Well, neither do you! Don't you think it's suspicious that we've never heard of a kid named Harry Potter before? He acts like he's been here for a while. Maybe he's been spying on us—"

"James, shut up!" Lily yelled. "You know nothing about this kid! You haven't even seen him! You can't judge someone without even meeting them!"

"You're doing the same thing! You're saying he's perfectly fine! What if he isn't?"

"Look at his face! Look at his body! He is so tiny and skinny! He has shadows under his eyes!"

"You're judging a book by its cover! That could just be because he's serving Voldemort!"

"Do you see Lucius Malfoy running around with bags under his eyes? No! You don't! He always seems well rested and full of energy!"

"Okay, you two! I think that's enough!" Sirius interjected. "Why don't we go talk to him tomorrow? That way we'll really find out if he's evil or not."

James looked at the ground and shrugged. Lily nodded her head as she pulled the loose strands from her ponytail behind her ears.

"Now, let's go to bed, shall we?"

"I guess we'll just sleep in the dorms since we're apparently not Head Boy and Girl anymore,"

"What do you mean?" James asked.

"Our names aren't on the golden plates anymore. Now, it's Ron and, I think it's Hermione. The password's been changed as well. It's _magic_."

"That makes no sense. And what a lame password!"

"It doesn't matter. We'll straiten it out later."

James shrugged again and followed Sirius to their dorms.


	5. This is MY Bed!

Chapter 5

This is MY Bed!

James and Sirius walked into the dorm. They sat on their beds, but Sirius leapt up as fast as he had sat down as a boy screamed.

"What are you doing?" a boy with bright red hair asked.

"What are you doing?" Sirius asked. "This is my bed!"

"No, it's mine!"

"Who are you?"

"Ron Weasley! I'm Head Boy!"

"Oh really? Well, if you are, why aren't you sleeping in the head's dorm?"

"That is none of your business, but if you want proof, then here!" Ron turned to the side of his bed and picked up a badge with the letters HB on it.

James had gotten up to stand next to Sirius. "You can't be Head Boy! I'm Head Boy!" he said as he pulled out his badge.

Ron turned his attention from Sirius to James. "Who are you?" he asked. He couldn't see either of them because there was no light in the room."

"First, I want to know why you are in my bed!" Sirius yelled.

"I already told you! It's not your bed! It's mine!"

"I've slept in it for seven years! I think I know which one is mine!"

Suddenly, a light appeared in the room. Sirius and Ron turned around to see who had caused the light to come on and found it was James.

"Harry, what are you doing here? I thought you were going to sleep in the Head Dorm tonight."

"Harry?" James said. "Is that that Harry Potter kid everyone keeps talking about?"

"Wow, you must look exactly like him for people to call you Harry!" Sirius said. When he said this, Ron turned toward Sirius.

"S...Sirius Black! You…you're here! In the dorms!" Ron said. He backed up and fell onto his bed. "But, that's not possible! You…you died!"

"How does everyone here know me? I have no clue who you people are!"

Ron turned toward James and said in the same shaky voice, "A…and you…you've got to be….but that's not possible either. You're dead too! Are you ghosts?"

"Do we look like ghosts?" James said.

"I'm pretty sure we're solid," Sirius said as he pinched his arm. "Yep, I'm solid. How 'bout you, Prongs?"

James didn't answer. He was staring at Ron. "You said your name was Weasley?"

Ron nodded.

"Are you friends with Harry Potter?"

Again, he nodded.

"Take me to him."

Ron was surprised at this. He stared at James with the utmost confusion. "Why?"

"Because I want to see him."

"I do too!" Sirius said.

"I don't think so. I don't think it'd be such a good idea."

"Why not?" James said, walking closer to Ron.

"Because…because, well, I can't say exactly."

"You can't say or you don't know?" James asked. "I have a few questions I want to ask him right now." James was almost on top of Ron now, who was shaking slightly. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at Ron. "Will you take me now?"

Ron looked at the wand, then into James' eyes. "No, I don't think it's a good idea for you to go see him tonight."

"Prongs, let him go."

"NO! I'm going to see Harry Potter now! Where is he?" he asked Ron.

"I'm not telling you!" he said defiantly.

"You know what? I think he's sleeping in the Heads Dorm. You let him stay there! That's why you aren't there! I don't need you to go see him! Lily told me the password! I can go right now!"

"I don't think so!" Ron said, his wand now out and pointed at James.

"You curse James, I curse you!" Sirius said, who now had his wand drawn.

Ron looked from Sirius to James and kept his wand up. "You will not go and bother Harry! _Stupefy_!" Ron yelled at James, but James moved out of the way.

"_Stupefy!_" Sirius yelled. Ron was caught off guard. He was hit in the back and fell to the floor.


	6. Father Meets Son

Chapter 6

Father Meets Son

James was already out the door when Sirius finished saying the spell. He ran out of the portrait of the fat lady and ran all the way to the Heads Dorm. He stopped in front of the portrait, ready to say the password, when he heard a shrill voice call out his name.

"James! Come back here this instant!"

He turned around grudgingly, gritting his teeth. He saw the eyes of Lily Evans barring into him, with Sirius following behind her.

"We said we'd go _together_ to talk to him tomorrow, _not_ go one at a time in the middle of the night to scare him half to death! What if he has the same reaction with you that he had with Sirius and me? It could be even worse this time because he looks exactly like you!"

"Lily, listen, I just want to see if he's dangerous or not. I don't want him to hurt you again! I want to know now if he's a spy for Voldemort!" he said, trying to keep his voice steady. He turned around and opened his mouth to say magic, but Lily interrupted him.

"Don't you dare!"

"_Magic_," he said. He walked forward just as Lily grabbed his arm.

"Take one more step! I dare you!" she said venomously.

"That has got to be the lousiest dare I've ever heard," James said as he walked forward once more, pulling his arm away from Lily. He was taken by surprise how different the room looked from yesterday. Lily had been right; their names weren't on the golden plaques over the door. He cane back to his senses quickly and walked straight for the door labeled Ron. He opened it and walked in. He saw a boy with messy black hair tossing and turning in the bed. He was talking in his sleep.

"No….please….Remus let me go! He's just over there! Behind the veil….NO! Sirius is not…he's not dead! He's just over there!...Voldemort!...Get away from me! Leave me alone! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Suddenly, the boy's arms and legs started twitching more than before as he fell out of his bed, his covers still tangled around him. He continued to lay there, now motionless. It was completely quiet except for the quiet sobs of the boy on the floor.

"I'm so sorry, Sirius…. It's all my fault. It's my fault you died. It's my fault Cedric died, my fault mum died…dad…Hagrid…Neville. That should have been me!" he banged his fists on the floor and rose to his knees facing the wall. "Each time, it should have been me! Every time someone died, it was because Voldemort was looking for me! It's all my fault…all my fault…. And Dumbledore…why did you…why did I promise to do what you said? If I hadn't, you would still be alive." As he continued, his sobs became louder and fiercer.

Lily watched as her heart went out to the boy, forgetting all the anger she had felt toward James just seconds before. She felt responsible for the pain in his life. _Wait!_ She thought. _I've only met this boy once! How could I be responsible for what is going on in his life? Lily, you're being crazy. _She

continued to listen to his speech about how it was his entire fault and how he wished it would all just

stop. She felt such pity for him she couldn't believe it. She wanted to run up and hold him and tell him

it would be all right. She thought no one should go through so much so early in life.

Sirius was in a trance. This was the second time he heard he was dead. _But that's not possible! I'm standing right here! I am not dead! Plus, it might be another person named Sirius. But how many guys are there named Sirius? I don' t even know this kid! How could he be grieving my death? The death of someone he doesn't even know…not that I am the Sirius he's talking about! Plus, I'm right here, standing, breathing, and listening. I'm very much alive! A corpse doesn't breathe!_

As Sirius kept battling with himself on whether or not he was dead, James looked at the boy with a disgusted look. _This kid only thinks about himself! "Oh woe is me! Oh woe is me! I have no one! I'm all alone!" Ha! I've got news for ya buddy! I'm alone too! I have no family either and I don't go around moping! I also have people trying to kill me and I don't act like it's the end of the world! _He continued to scoff at Harry as he watched in disgust as he continued to scream and yell at himself.

Harry finally rose to his feet, wiped his eyes and for the first time, noticed the strangers who had been watching him. He froze and stared at the three figures in his doorway. James walked toward him, but it didn't change the distance between the two boys, for Harry was backing away from James.

"So, you're Harry Potter. The famous Harry Potter! The Boy-Who-Lived! The Chosen One, whatever that one is supposed to mean. Well, from what I can see, you're just a pathetic little bowl of jell-o."

"James! Can't you see you're scaring him?" Lily said, trying to stop James from getting to close to Harry.

"If it's true what they say, then I shouldn't scare him. If he really has fought Voldemort before, then why should he be scared of me?" James looked at Harry with a slight smile playing across his face. Then, they heard a tiny voice speak.

"You're supposed to be dead."

"Excuse me? I'm standing right here! I'm not dead!" James said. "I think you have mental problems."

"I watched you die," he said, pointing at Sirius. "And you two, you were murdered by Voldemort! You've been dead for sixteen years!"

"Harry," Lily said, coming forward. Harry backed away even more until he fell over a t-shirt on the floor. Lily stopped walking, trying to show Harry she wasn't going to hurt him. "We can't be dead, Harry," she said sweetly. "Do really think if we were dead, we would be standing in front of you?"

Harry just stared at them. James started to become annoyed with the silence and walked toward Harry once more.

"Get away from me! All of you!" Harry shouted, picking up a pillow and throwing it at James.

"Not until I get some answers," James said, blocking the pillow. His now cold eyes staring at the boy

who looked just like him, save the eyes and scar on his forehead. He was a few inches away from a shaking Harry.


	7. The Truth

Chapter 7

The Truth

Lily ran in between the two and blocked James' way. "James, how dare you! What is wrong with you? Can't you see he's scared to death of you?"

"Well, he's not exactly running up to you or Sirius now is he?"

"James, I can't explain this, we just scare him! He thinks we're dead! I'm not exactly sure why, but he thinks were dead. I mean, how would you feel if you saw your dead parents here, standing in front of you?"

"That's different," James said looking down at the ground.

"No, it's not. You'd be seeing people you know to be dead. Now, for some reason, Harry thinks we're dead."

James broke away from Lily and looked at the spot where Harry had been laying on the floor, only to find he wasn't there.

"What the?" he turned around and found him sitting on his bed. He was holding up the covers in an effort to protect himself. He had been watching the scene in front of him, as had Sirius. Sirius now walked toward Harry.

"Harry, I have a question for you. Why do you think we're dead?"

Harry looked at each of them in turn. He stopped shaking as he opened his mouth to speak. "I saw you die, Sirius."

Sirius was surprised at this answer, but he went on. He wanted to figure out the mystery of why everyone thought he was dead. "When did you see me die?"

"Two years ago. In the Department of Mysteries," Harry said. He whispered the last three words as if it was something he didn't wish to talk about.

"Department of Mysteries?" James said. "What was Sirius doing there?"

Harry looked at his bed covers and said more to himself than anyone else, "It was my fault."

"Harry," Lily said, noticing Harry's eyes swell with tears. "If you don't want to talk about this, you don't have to. We understand," she said. As James and Sirius opened their mouths to protest, Lily gave them a look that told them to shut it.

"No, I want to talk about it," Harry said softly. "I haven't talked about it since it happened. I tried to burry it inside myself and it worked. At least it was working. When I saw Sirius in the Great Hall, I lost control. I ran from there and hid in the dorms. I wouldn't even let Ron or Hermione talk to me. I didn't want to talk about the Department of Mysteries, but I knew that was all I needed to get over it, but I told myself that I could get over it without talking. I have held it in for almost two years. I thought, as did Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, that at the beginning of this year when Hagrid and Neville died, I'd loose it again, but I didn't. Actually, that helped me hold it in. I'm not sure why. I guess it was because I was just completely numb from it that I couldn't display any emotions. And Remus—" Harry stopped. He just realized he had been dumping almost every single thought he had had since last year to his dead parents and godfather.

"What about Remus? What does he have to do with anything? How do you know him?" James asked.

"I met him in my third year. He was teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. That was the year—"

"Wait! Wait! Wait! Teaching? You're in seventh year, right?" Sirius asked.

Harry nodded.

"That would mean Remus would be in third year as well. So why was he teaching?"

Suddenly, Harry's eyes got wide. "You…you didn't come back to life!"

"Of course we didn't! We've never died!" Sirius said.

"But you're here! In front of me! Oh my! Is it even possible?" Harry jumped up and ran out of the room.

Surprised by his sudden movement, the three stood there for a moment. James was the first to come back to his senses. He turned around and ran after Harry. He didn't have to go very far, because the two girls Lily had seen earlier were standing in front of him trying to calm him down.

"Harry, listen, it's not possible for that to happen! Even with a time-turner, you can't go forward or backward in years. It's just not—" she stopped. The girl gasped and as she did so, Harry and Ginny turned around as well. . There stood James Potter.

"Oh, my!" Hermione breathed. Harry stared at James as Lily and Sirius appeared behind him.

"See? I didn't even notice before, but Sirius is younger!"

"Yes, I…I see, Harry. But how did this happen? Do they know?"

"Hello! We're right here! Do we know what?" James said.

"I think we'd better tell them, or they're going to keep on asking questions until they figure it out," Ginny said.

"But we can't tell them, Harry! We have to go to a professor with this!"

"No!" Harry said. "Hermione, we don't need to go running to a professor every time something goes wrong! Besides, I want to find out what James Potter really was like. I don't just want to hear about it from someone else!"

"Harry, your life could be at stake here!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Good! Then I wouldn't be responsible for the fate of the world! That's another bonus! The longer they stay, the greater chance I have of not ever existing!"

"Harry James Potter! How dare you say that! The longer they stay here, the greater chance Voldemort will find out they're here and you will be in even more danger!" Ginny screamed at him.

"Wait a minute! Could someone please tell us what's going on?" James said.

Harry turned from Hermione and looked at them. "You're in the future."

James felt the blood fall from his head and Lily's cold hands grab his arm. Next to him, he felt Sirius' breath leave him as if someone had knocked the wind out of him.

"What do you mean?" Lily said, shakily. "That's not possible!"

"How? How did this happen?" Sirius asked.

"Voldemort," James said suddenly, surprising even himself.

"Voldemort?" Harry said. "What does he have to do with this?"

"He's the one who sent us here."

"How?" Hermione asked.

"Why?" Sirius asked.

"I'd like to know that as well," Lily said.

"Last night, Voldemort said something. Some sort of spell. You two were unconscious when he did it. There was red and black smoke swirling around us. I couldn't breathe so I passed out. That's the only explication that I can think of that would explain why we suddenly ended up in the future."

"I guess time travel would explain all the strangeness," Lily said. "Like why no one remembers last night, why none of our friends are here, why James and I are no longer head boy and girl, and why Harry and James look exactly alike. You are related to him aren't you?"

Harry looked at Lily, then at James.

"Harry, don't. They can't know. You're life is at stake already. Please don't blow it. They can't know anything that happens. You can't!"

"Hermione—"

"No, I'm not going to let you. I'll tell Professor McGonagall they're here if you tell them anything more!"

Harry looked at Hermione and it was clear to everyone that he was not happy about this. Through gritted teeth, he agreed.

"Hang on! That's not fair!" James exclaimed.

"I agree! If it has to do with us, then we should know!" Sirius bellowed.

"It also has to do with Harry, and every little bit of information you obtain about what is going on could jeopardize his existence!" Hermione said.

"Why?" James said.

"That is one of the questions I can't answer."

Suddenly, the portrait opened and Ron burst in, panting. "Harry...your parents…Sirius…they're here!"

"Wait! Wait! Wait! Parents _and _Sirius!" James exclaimed. "That means…I'm…and Lily…. No! You're crazy! You're all mental!" he waved his arms around, then turned toward Harry. James walked up to him, his finger pointed at Harry. "I am not dead, I am not in the future, and you are certainly not my son!" he turned around and left the room.


	8. Midnight Meeting

Chapter 8

Midnight Meeting

James had run as far as he could away from the Heads Dorms.

"Lunatics! That's what they are!" he muttered to himself. "How could we have gotten here? There's no logical explanation for how we got here! Oh yeah, Voldemort. And I'm the one who came up with it! Well, ummm, er, oh! There's got to be something that can disprove this! I'm not in the future! And I… if I'm Harry's dad, and he thinks I'm dead, oh that's just stupid! That means I die really young! I can't die young! I'm James Potter! And what's worse! That redheaded kid said Lily was his mother. If that's true, then she dies young too! No! I'm not going to believe this! It's bad enough I have to die young, but Lily and Sirius!"

He continued walking until he reached the Quidditch Pitch and looked up at the stars that now filled the sky. There was plenty of light because of the full moon. "But, it was a full moon last night!" James said out loud. "Oh, I forgot, we traveled through time! Uh, if it was a normal night in _my_ seventh year, then we'd all be in the Shrieking Shack."

James and his friends Remus, Sirius, and Peter all met in the Shrieking Shack once a month. They did this because that was where Remus went when he went through his transformations. James, Sirius, and Peter all had a secret as well. As you already know, Sirius has the ability to alter himself into a dog. Peter, another one in the group, could transform himself into a rat. James had the ability to turn himself into a stag. He not only used this gift when he was helping to control a werewolf, but when he wanted to be alone.

Now, James the stag, otherwise known as Prongs, walked around on the Quidditch Pitch. He slowly started to run. Prongs loved the feeling of running while in his animal state. He could run so much faster than when he was a human. He loved the feeling of the cool, clean wind on his face. He loved racing over the grass, practically soaring from one end of the pitch to the other. He slowed back down to a walk when he heard something walking toward him. He couldn't see anything or anyone, but he knew someone was there.

He walked toward the sound of approaching footsteps when suddenly they stopped. Prongs stared ahead. He knew someone was there; he could smell him.

Suddenly, the steps began again. Whoever it was had decided to run. He was running toward the three rings at the top of the field. Prongs ran after him. He could hear the footsteps closer now. Then, he stepped on something soft and a boy appeared in front of him on the ground. The boy turned over to face the stag and Prongs realized who it was.

"Dad," Harry said. The stag turned back into James and knelt next to Harry. He was propped up on his elbows, looking up at James.

"How did you know it was me? And I am not your dad!"

"If you're not my dad, then how did I know you were animagus?" Harry responded.

James turned and sat on the ground, elbows on his knees, and head in his hands.

"I can't be in the future! I just can't," James mumbled.

"Do you think it's any easier for me? Because it's not," Harry said.

"Well, how hard could it be for you? You didn't travel years into the future! You didn't find out that you die! That your best friend dies! That the girl you care most about in the world dies! How would you feel, knowing you don't have that long to live?"

"Actually, I have a pretty good idea of how that feels."

"Really? And why is that?" James asked, skeptically.

"If I told you, Hermione would hate me for the rest of my life."

"So, in other words, you don't know," James sneered.

"No, I do know. I know what it's like to feel as if this is your last day on earth. You at least know you will be able to get married and have a son before you die. I don't have that luxury."

"Look, I came out here to be alone. So I'm going to go back up to the—" he stopped. "Someone's out there,"

"How do you know?"

"I can turn into a stag, remember? I can hear the person." James reached into his pocket and pulled out a seemingly blank piece of parchment. James stopped, because he had noticed Harry doing the same thing.

"You have the map?" James whispered.

Harry didn't answer. He only whispered, "_I solemnly swear that I am up to no good_." James had his wand out as well and peered over Harry's shoulder. They looked at the Quidditch Pitch and saw two dots labeled Harry Potter and James Potter. To the left of them about thirty feet away were two dots labeled Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange.

"We've got to go!" Harry whispered to James.

James decided to ask questions later and do what Harry said now. They walked as fast as they could toward the castle without making it look like they were running from the two Death Eaters. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

"Stop right there!" a girl called out from behind them, but they didn't listen. They broke into a run only to collapse to the ground as they were hit with trip jinxes.

"Hello, Potters!" Malfoy called. He tied the two up with ropes and the four disappeared from the Hogwarts grounds.


	9. Voldemort's Lair

Chapter 9

Voldemort's Lair

James opened his eyes and groaned. His head ached. He went to move his hands to his head, but found his hands were tied behind his back. He looked around. He could tell by the little light coming from the fireplace he was in a small room with serpents carved into the walls. He also noticed there was no door in the room, at least, none that he could see. He looked to his left and saw Harry tied up next to him. He was rather surprised to see Sirius and Ron on the other side of Harry as well. On his right side, he saw Hermione, Lily, and Ginny.

"Harry?" James asked. Harry looked at him. "Where are we?"

"I don't know," Harry replied.

James looked at Sirius and asked, "How did you get here? You weren't with Harry and me when we were taken."

Sirius opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly, four figures appeared from the shadows in the corner. The tallest of the four stood in front of Harry as the others stood behind him.

"It does not matter how they got here. It just matters that they are here," the tallest one spoke. He had a cruel, cold voice. When he spoke, you could feel the smirk playing across his face, even though a dark hood covered it. "Harry James Potter, we meet again. I see you have met your father. Is he everything you imagined? You are probably wondering why he is in the future in the first place. That is my doing. My younger self knew of a prophecy, a different prophecy that described a family that was filled with extremely powerful wizards. In the prophecy, it was said that the last of this family would be the one to defeat the darkest wizard of all time. Now of course, it might not have meant me, but just in case, I went searching for such a family and I finally found it. It was the Potters. I had suspected that James would be the one to destroy me and that is why I sent him away."

"But you were wrong. You seem to do the wrong things a lot," Harry said.

"As do you. Should I mention a certain event that took place in the Department of Mysteries?" Harry glared at Voldemort, but remained silent. "Now, my younger self also hadn't heard of another prophecy that was made shortly after James Potter returned. A prophecy that was more specific about which Potter would be the last Potter. It described a boy who would be born of parents who had defied me three times and would be born at the end of the seventh month. There were two boys that fit that description, but I knew which it was. It was the Potter child that I needed to kill. After that failure, I hunted Harry down for years and at the same time, trying to give myself a body again. Thanks to my loyal Death Eater, Wormtail, I succeeded."

"What!" Sirius and James cried together. "Peter? He's a Death Eater? What do you mean?" James demanded.

"Oh yes, he is. And as a matter of fact, he's right here," Voldemort pulled one of the men that was standing behind him forward. He was short, plump, and at the end of his right arm, there was a silver hand.

"YOU JOINED VOLDEMORT! HOW COULD YOU? HE KILLED MY PARENTS! HE KILLS LILY! HE KILLS ME!" James shouted at Wormtail. The Death Eater started to tremble as James continued screaming at the rat like man who used to be one of his best friends.

"Now, now, James. I think you should calm down now," Voldemort sneered. "Last time you got angry around me you died. Now, who shall I kill first? James Potter? It would be much fun to murder you again. It would also be intriuging to see what happens to Harry. Or maybe the beautiful Ginny Weasley. That would certainly do something to Harry as well, wouldn't it? Who shall die first? It would be prudent to kill Harry first. After all, if he escapes, we will have to hunt him down again and it is of the utmost importance that we do not allow him to live."

As Voldemort had done his monologue about who should be killed first, James had noticed Harry trying to untie his bonds. When he finally succeeded, he kept his hands behind his back and closed his eyes. Suddenly, a stick flew from Lucius' pocket in his robes and landed in Harry's now outstretched hand.

"Let us go, now!" Harry commanded, taking the four hooded figures by surprise. Voldemort raised his wand as well.

"You can't duel with me, Voldemort. Our wands are brothers."

"Who said anything about dueling with you? I am going to end this now! You're parent's sacrifice didn't last for long! After you are gone, I shall become invincible! _Avada_—"

"Master?" a timid voice spoke, stopping Voldemort from completing the Killing Curse.

"_Crucio!_" Voldemort screamed as he turned around, his wand pointed at Wormtail. He screamed out in pain as he withered on the ground, his limbs twitching.

"HOW DARE YOU INTERRUPT ME! I AM ABOUT TO END THE LIFE OF THE ONLY BEING ON EARTH WHO CAN DESTROY ME!"

"Master, please!" he cried.

Voldemort stopped.

"Master, please, d-don't kill the b-boy. You—"

"WHAT? YOU WANT ME TO ALLOW HIM TO LIVE? YOU WANT ME TO DIE?"

"No, m-master. Maybe, instead, he-he could j-join you." Wormtail hid his face behind his arms to shield himself from Voldemort's wrath.

"YOU IDIOT! HE WILL NEVER JOIN ME!" Voldemort advanced on Wormtail, but then stopped. "Unless…" He glanced sideways at Harry and started laughing once again. He pointed his wand at Harry and said, "_Expelliarmus!_" Harry's wand flew out of his hand. He tried to catch it, but failed. His wand was now in Voldemort's hand. "Lucius, tie him up and bring him with you. Bellatrix, get Ginny Weasley." With a wave of his hand, a door appeared and Voldemort walked through it, followed by Wormtail.


	10. Call on the Ministry

Chapter 10

Call on the Ministry

Lucius turned toward Harry who was over by Ginny trying to keep Bellatrix away from her. James watched Harry dodge a stunning spell from both Lucius and Bellatrix as he tried to untie his own hands. He finally succeeded just as Harry had been knocked against the wall. He ran up to Lucius and knocked him over. James grabbed the Death Eater's wand and pointed it at him, but Lucius hit James' arm and the wand flew out of his hand. Harry saw it and picked it up and ran toward Bellatrix who was almost to the door with Ginny.

"Let her go!" Harry yelled. "_Expelliarmus!_" Bellatrix's wand flew out of her hand and into Harry's. He ran at Bellatrix and pulled Ginny out of her grasp. "Stupefy!" he yelled at her. Harry then untied Ginny's hands and told her to untie the others. Just as Ginny turned her back, Lucius jumped on Harry and knocked him to the ground.

"Harry!" Ginny screamed.

"Get the others!" he yelled back. Ginny was hesitant to obey, but finally consented to Harry's command.

Lucius was on top of Harry, one hand on his throat, the other reaching for the wands in Harry's right hand. Harry was trying his best to keep his hand away from Lucius. As they were struggling, Harry saw James lying on the floor on the other side of the room, not moving. As they continued to struggle, Harry felt weaker and weaker. Lucius finally reached the wands stood up. He was too late, though. The other seventh years were untied and had jumped on Lucius and pulled him away from Harry. Ron, Hermione and Sirius were holding him down, while Lily took the wands away from him and stunned him.

Ginny was over by Harry, trying to help him up when Lily screamed.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, running over to Lily, followed by Sirius and Ron.

"He—he…" Lily stuttered.

Hermione gasped when she saw, Sirius yelped and Ron's eyes widened. James had been stabbed in the side. The knife was still there. Lily's eyes began to fill with tears. Then, Ginny screamed, "Harry!" He had collapsed on the ground, groaning.

They all turned to look at the two.

"What's happening to him?" Ron asked as he rushed over to Harry's side to try and help him up again.

"Ron, James is Harry's father! If James dies, then Harry won't exist!"

"We have to get back to the school, now!" Ginny exclaimed. She was helping Ron to support Harry.

"Come on, the door's still open," Ron said. "And our wands are in Lucius' pocket." Hermione bent over and grabbed the six wands and handed them to their owners and giving James' to Lily.

"Oh! Voldemort has Harry's!" Hermione said.

"Let's worry about it later, Hermione. We have to get them back to the school!" Lily said frantically.

"Shouldn't we first put a disillusionment charm on ourselves first? In case we meet anyone?" Hermione suggested.

"Good idea, but hurry! James Potter is not going to die tonight!" Sirius exclaimed.

Hermione started placing the charm on everyone and Lily said she could help. When they were done with that, Sirius levitated James and they made their way out of the room as fast as they could. Lily, Ron, Harry, and Ginny went first. They walked as quietly as possible, not saying a word, as they made their way down the long corridor. They followed it until they came to a staircase leading upwards. Lily ran up the steps as the others followed. When they reached the top, they heard voices. They couldn't understand what they were saying, but Lily didn't care. All she wanted was to get out of here with no trouble at all. Hermione, on the other hand, was curious. She had distinctly heard the names Harry Potter and James Potter. She wanted to know what they were saying. As they got closer, Hermione stopped to listen. Lily had noticed and turned around and walked toward her. "What are you stopping for? James is dying!"

"They're talking about Harry and James!"

"Of course they are! They're trying to kill Harry and James came to the future!" Lily whispered. "Now, unless you want them to die, you had better start moving again!"

Lily ran ahead to the front and walked as fast as she could down the hall. When they came to the end of the hall, they found a door.

"Should we go through it?" Sirius asked.

Lily walked up to the door and opened it. On the other side, was a tunnel. "Come on," Lily said and walked in. Ginny and Ron, supporting Harry, were right behind her, just as eager to leave. They walked on and when they finally reached the end of the tunnel, they found a door with several snakes on it. But there was something wrong with it.

"There's no handle!" Ginny said.

"How do we open it?" Sirius asked.

Lily took out her wand and said, "_Alohomora._" Nothing happened.

"What do we do?" Ron asked.

Just then Harry groaned. His head lolled back and forth and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He could no longer use his legs even the little bit he had been. Ron and Ginny stumbled as Harry let go of himself.

"Hurry," Harry said, though it was barely audible.

"Maybe we need to speak parseltongue to get it open," Ron suggested.

"Where did that come from?" Sirius asked.

"Voldemort is a Parselemouth. I just thought that maybe you need to say something in Parsletoung to get it to open. Like in Second year."

"Actually, that would be pretty smart," Hermione said.

"I still don't understand how that will help us!" Sirius said impatiently.

"Harry's a Parslemouth." Sirius and Lily gasped. "But we'll explain later if you have to know." Hermione said. "Harry, can you say something in parsletongue?"

"What?" he asked, but no sound came out, but they could tell what he had asked.

"Try 'open'," Ron said, if you can do it."

Harry opened his mouth to try and speak, but he only sighed and closed his eyes.

"Oh no!" Ginny exclaimed.

"That must mean James is getting worse! We have to hurry!" Lily said, frustrated.

"Now what do we do?" Sirius said frantically. "I'm not going to watch James die!" Sirius' face was completely pale now and grew even paler when the door opened from the outside. The five held their breath and backed up against the walls as two death eaters walked in. They were relieved when they passed by without acknowledging them. They hurriedly left out the door before it closed.

When the door had closed, Ron said, "We made it!"

"Yes, but where are we?" Ginny asked.

"We're in London!" Lily said, looking disappointed.

"That's great!" Ron exclaimed.

"How is that great?" Lily exclaimed. "Now we won't get to the school!"

"But don't you see, Lily? We're really close to the Ministry of Magic!"

"So?"

"My dad works there! He can help us!"

Lily's eyes glowed, as did Ginny's.

"Come on! We must hurry!" Ginny said.

"But wouldn't St. Mungo's be closer?" Hermione asked as they went as fast as they could towards the entry to the Ministry.

"No," Ron said. "But even if it were, don't you think they would have a really hard time believing that Harry's dad came to the future and now his dad is dying so Harry's in jeopardy of not existing?"

When they finally reached the telephone booth, Ron, being closest to the receiver, dialed the numbers six two four four two. As he did, a cool, female voice filled the telephone booth. "Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business."

"Lily Evans, James Potter, Sirius Black, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley. We're here to see Arthur Weasley."

"Thank you. Visitors please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes."

Just then, seven badges came out of the metal chute where returned coins are dropped; Ron picked them up.

Again, the female voice spoke. "Visitors to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium." The floor to the booth shook and the pavement rose up over the telephone booth as they entered the Ministry of Magic and they sunk into darkness. When they neared the bottom, a ray of light shown on their feet and slowly rose. When they reached the bottom, the lady said, "The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening."

As they entered the Ministry, Ginny commented, "This reminds me of when we went to the Department of Mysteries." She shuddered and Hermione said, "Try not to think about it, alright?"

"Come on, we have to find your dad," Sirius said. They walked further and further into the Ministry and came across no one. They headed for Arthur Weasley's office, hoping he was there.

"What if he's not here?" Hermione asked.

"He is," Ginny said. "He's had to work late almost every night since the news of Voldemort's return became public knowledge. It's more likely that he'll be here than at home."

They finally reached the office. It was at the end of a very long hall. They walked up to the double doors that led to the office. Ginny walked forward and knocked on the door. She waited for a few moments, but no one answered. She knocked again and once more, they waited. To their surprise, the door opened and in front of them stood Arthur Weasley.

"Ginny? What are you doing here? Why aren't you at school?" he asked. It was then, that he noticed the others behind his daughter. "What happened? Who are they?" Mr. Weasley asked, acknowledging Sirius, Lily, and James.

"Dad, we'll explain later. Right now, we need to get to the school. Harry and James are dying!"

"James? James who?"

"James Potter, sir," Lily said.

"James Potter? How?" Mr. Weasley looked at the boy who was held by a levitating charm.

"Voldemort," Ron said. "Please help us!"

"Alright. Listen to me. We need to get them to St. Mungo's now. It's the closest place. Now, come here, everyone. You can all apparate, correct?" there was a round of nods. "Good. I'll—"

"Dad, I don't have a license to apparate," Ginny said.

"You know how, though?" She nodded. "Alright, then. I'll deal with problems when the time comes. I'll take James and come back for Harry. None of you can take him because it's much more complicated when you're taking someone else with you. I'll be right back." With that, he disaparated.

There was silence as the group waited for Mr. Weasley to return. Harry had been set on a couch by the fire and Ginny was knelt beside him, moving hair from his eyes. She ran her finger over his scar. She thought about all the things Voldemort had forced him to go through. Thanks to Voldemort, Harry had no parents, he has had a near death experience every year since he arrived at Hogwarts. Thanks to Voldemort, Harry had to go through the Triwizard Tournament. Because of Voldemort's curiosity to find out about some stupid prophecy, Harry lost his godfather, thanks to Voldemort's fear of death, Harry has to stop attending Hogwarts, his favorite place in the world, and destroy all the horcruxes that help keep Voldemort alive.

Just then, Mr. Weasley appeared again and took Harry away, followed by the rest of the teens.

Mr. Weasley walked forward towards the desk to talk to the witch behind the counter.

"Excuse me," he said. "Here is the son of the person I brought a few minutes ago."

"Follow me, sir. Bring the patient. The others must stay out here."

The students made many pleas to be brought back, but to no avail. Mr. Weasley brought Harry back with him and they entered a room with two beds.

"I'll have a Healer in here as soon as possible," the witch said. Mr. Weasley nodded thanks and turned his attention to James. He examined the wound more closely. The weapon was still in his side and the bleeding had slowed. His robes were completely bloodstained. He carefully ripped James' robes and took them off as well as his shirt. He did not take the weapon out yet, for the blood was still coming. He would allow the healer to do that. Just then, the door opened and four Healers came in.

"What happened?" the first Healer asked.

"This young man was stabbed with a knife and he is still bleeding. We need to stop the bleeding and keep him alive or else the other young man will perish as well."

The Healers looked at Harry and gasped. "That's Harry Potter!" one cried.

"What happened to him?"

"Harry will be fine if you save this boy here from dying," informed Mr. Weasley.

"I will have to ask you to leave while we do this, sir."

"Very well, then. I'll go." With that, he left and joined the students in the lobby.

"Dad! Will they be alright?" Ginny asked.

"I do not know, Ginny. Right now, I think you owe me an explanation."


	11. The Dream

Chapter 11

The Dream

James looked around. "Where am I?" he wondered. He was walking down a dirt road with a barbed wire fence running down each side. It was a narrow road with nothing around it but grass. He looked behind him and saw nothing. In front of him was nothing. He was all alone. He continued walking, for lack of better things to do, as he kept wondering what had happened.

He looked up and saw the bluest sky he had ever seen. There was a slight wind that felt wonderfully pleasing. There were no clouds and no sun. "But how can there be light with no sun?" he wondered aloud.

He had been walking for what felt like hours when he heard something beside him. He turned to look and saw a boy who looked about seven years old. He had dirty blonde hair and gorgeous blue eyes. His skin was fair and he was very skinny.

"Hello!" the boy said cheerfully.

"Uh…hi," James said unsurely.

"What's your name?"

"James."

"My name's Sean. How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"I'm seven! You're exactly ten years older than me! What are you doing here?"

"Actually, I'm not sure. I don't remember coming here."

"I've been here loads of times."

"Really?" James said. "So, where are we?"

"At the end of our life."

James gave Sean a confused look. "What do you mean 'At the end of our life'? You don't mean I'm dying, do you?"

"Yes, we are dying, but don't worry. We still have a long way to go. The end of the road isn't for miles. It's not painful; at least I don't think it is. I've never died so I wouldn't know. The doctors have always been able to recover me and they always do it right when I think of something I have to do before I die. Anyway, I have some kind of terminal sickness and I've been in the hospital for months. We didn't realize anything was wrong until it was too late so here I am again."

"Doctors?" James asked. "Oh! You mean muggle Healers, don't you? You're a muggle aren't you?"

"Muggle? What's that?"

James hesitated for a moment, then replied, thinking there was no harm in telling this little boy. "They're non-magic people."

"Are you saying that you can do magic?" Sean asked, his eyes getting larger by the second.

"Yes." James reached for his wand but found it wasn't there. "My wand! It's gone!"

"You use wands!" Sean asked, getting even more excited.

"Yes, but I can't find mine! Hey, if you really want to see some magic, then if we both get out of here, maybe I'll come visit you and show you some magic. Of course, I'll probably get into a whole lot of trouble."

"That would be wonderful! I'm at the Baptist Memorial Hospital in London. I hope you find your wand."

"Oh, I just remembered. Voldemort has my wand!" James ruffled his hair out of annoyance.

"Who's Voldemort?"

"An evil wizard who's trying to kill my son."

"Your son? You're too young to have a son!" Sean said laughing.

"Look that part is complicated, but if I really am dying, then he's dying too! I have to get out of here! My son can't die! Not yet, at least!"

"Why?"

"It's because of this prophecy made a long time ago! I don't know what it's about, but I do know it's really important. I can't die! I have to live!"

"We can't stop ourselves from dying. The only thing we can do is wait and see if we are supposed to live or not."

"No! We can save ourselves! We have to! We can fight, can't we?"

"I haven't found a way to save myself yet," Sean said.

James looked at Sean. "You said that the doctors always saved you when you remembered something you had to do before you died. Remembering that gave you reasons to live. You subconsciously fought back to keep alive! That's why you've never died before!"

"Wow, I never thought of it like that. I just thought it was a coincidence. Well, I can't think of anything right now except seeing you again. I've never met anyone else on this road before. It's nice having someone to talk to. I've always wanted a brother. I never got one though. My older brother died when I was three and I never got a younger one. Do you have any brothers, James?"

"No, I don't."

"Do you want one?"

"I guess, well, I don't know. All my friends that have brothers or sisters never get along with them. I've never really thought about it before. I guess it might be nice to have a brother."

"Do you want to be my brother?"

James turned to face Sean. He looked down into his beautiful blue eyes. "Are you sure you want a brother?"

"More than anything! I've always wanted one." Sean looked up at James. James returned the stare by turning forward. "I don't know, Sean."

Sean looked at the ground, frowning.

"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt," James said, deciding it would help cheer the boy up.

Sean screamed out of joy and jumped on James. James laughed as he set Sean down on the ground again. "I have a brother!" he shrieked. "Now we both have a reason to live! I have a brother who I have to see again and you have to stay alive to save your son!"

James smiled and looked at Sean. They walked in happy silence for a while, then Sean asked, "Can you tell me about your son? What's his name?"

"Harry," James said, uncertainly. "Look, I don't know that much about my son. You see, I just met him last night and we didn't get along really well."

"What?" he asked confused. "How could you have just met him last night? How old is he?"

"Well, I think he's seventeen."

"But, but that's how old you are! You can't have a baby when you're one!"

James smiled. "Well, I'm not exactly from this time. I was sort of sent to the future."

Sean looked at James; shock, awe, and surprise leaking out of his eyes. "You traveled through time? Did you use a time machine?"

"A what? Well, whatever it is, no I didn't. It was a spell that sent me here."

"Was it that Volemat person?" Sean asked, his face screwing up as he tried to pronounce the wizard's name.

James laughed. "Yes, it was Voldemort and he's probably the reason I'm here on this road. Anyway, Harry looks exactly like me except he has his mother's eyes." As James mentioned Lily, his face cringed.

"Are you okay, James? You don't look alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just remembered Lily. How could I have forgotten her!"

"Is she your wife?"

"Not yet, but yes."

"Why didn't you get along with Harry when you met him? Wasn't he happy to see you?"

"Well," James said slowly. "Harry's parents died when he was little. When he said I was his father, I turned against him and wouldn't believe him. I mean, who could blame me! He was basically telling me I die in three years! Who wants to hear that!"

"I'm sure he didn't mean to be mean. If his dad does die, and you are his dad, then wouldn't he be a little shocked at seeing you?"

James didn't say anything.

"And if you don't really like him that much, why do you want to stay alive to save him?"

"Look, I have other people I would like to see as well! Do we have to keep talking about Harry?" James asked getting frustrated.

"No, but I was just curious. You're his father. Shouldn't you at least treat him kindly, even if you don't believe him?"

"I don't want to. He told me I die! That Lily dies! And that by best friend dies thanks to him! And because of him, I found out one of my other friend joins Voldemort! Why should I trust, believe, or be kind to someone who tells me that after I leave school my whole life gets destroyed!"

Sean looked at the ground. "I just thought you might want to think about it before you say anything more that could hurt him. I mean, he's only had other people tell him what you are like. Now, he probably thinks that they knew a different James or something."

James was silent. He looked at Sean with sad eyes that immediately turned fearful. "What's happening to you?"

"They're saving me. I'm getting better. I hope your doctors can save you. Don't forget to come see me or what I said about Harry. All children deserve a father's love."

Sean was gone before James could reply. He was all alone once again. _He's right you know. No, he's not! I've done nothing wrong! I think you have. You yelled at him and practically disowned him. You blew him off on the Quidditch pitch and insulted him. You know he's right Go away! I don't need you to tell me what to think! Actually, you are thinking this. You are arguing with yourself. Go away! I can't. I am you. And I have a point to make. Since I am you, you do believe Harry and you know Sean is right. Please go away. I can think this out on my own. You are. ARG! Fine! I admit it! You're right! Harry's right! Sean's right! I was a jerk! I shouldn't have yelled at Harry. But what can I do about it now? Harry hates me and he thinks I hate him and I'm dying! Have you already forgotten that you can help save yourself? All you need is a reason to live. You need to apologize to Harry. _

"I will not die!" James said aloud. He thought as hard as he could about seeing Harry again and apologizing. He told himself over and over that Harry was right and he was wrong and he needed Harry to know he was sorry. James could now see the end of the road. "It's not working!" he screamed. He thought about seeing Harry and saving Harry. He had to stay alive. He tried to stop walking, but his feet wouldn't obey. He reached out for the fence to try and hold him in one spot, but as soon as he touched it, he screamed. The fence had hurt him. It had sent pain coursing through his body. He looked around once more, his heart beating rapidly. James was getting more worried each moment. He shouted, "I am not ready to die!"

He could now see the end of the road. He tried grabbing the fence again, not caring how much it hurt, but he could not stand it for long. He let go, closed his eyes, and screamed, thinking only of Harry.

When he opened them again, James saw he was no longer in the middle of nowhere. He was in a bed on the right side of a room with another bed on his left. He turned to see who was lying in it and saw it was Harry. _Please wake up! _James thought. He watched Harry until, slowly, Harry opened his eyes. James smiled, then fell into a deep sleep.


	12. What Now?

Chapter 12

What Now?

When James woke the next day, he saw a stranger with bright red hair leaning over him. James opened his mouth to say something, but found he couldn't speak. He looked over at Harry and noticed he was asleep.

"He will be fine now that you are recovering, James," he said. "Now, there are a few people outside who are most eager to see you." The man got up from the chair he had been sitting in and left the room and in came Sirius, Lily, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.

"Oh James! I'm so glad you are all right!" Lily said, leaning over to kiss him.

"I…mmm…" James tried to talk, but no words formed.

"Don't talk, James," Hermione said.

"Yeah. It's not like we waited all night to hear you talk to us!" Sirius said teasingly.

Ginny, Ron, and Hermione turned from James and went to sit by Harry's bed.

"Mmmhuamuuh" James tried once more, found he couldn't talk, and sighed. He wanted to tell them about Sean and the dream. _Was it real or just a dream_? He wondered.

"Are you okay, Prongs?"

James nodded and pointed at his head to try to indicate that he was just thinking.

Suddenly, someone groaned. It was Harry!

"Harry?" Hermione said excitedly. He groaned again. Ginny grabbed his right hand and Hermione grabbed his left as Ron stood next to Hermione staring anxiously at his best friend in the whole world. They were all watching him. When he opened his eyes, everyone sighed and smiled at him. Harry smiled back. He opened his mouth to speak, but found he couldn't.

"How are ya, Harry?" Ron asked.

Harry nodded his head.

"Good." Ginny said.

"I agree. Now that Harry's awake, we know that James will be okay," Lily said happily.

Harry looked around and tried to get someone to tell him what had happened. He tapped Ginny's shoulder and she looked at him.

"What is it, Harry?"

He tried to talk again, but could only mouth "What happened?"

"What?" Ginny asked.

"I think he wants to know what happened, right?" Hermione asked. Harry nodded.

Ron, Hermione, Sirius, Ginny, and Lily all took turns telling Harry and James what had happened. There was a long pause when they had finished, then Ron said, "You'll get out of here in a few days. They just want to make sure James is alright." Again, silence filled the room until the door opened and the same man James had seen by his bed entered accompanied by Professor McGonagall.

"I am afraid it is time to return to Hogwarts now. You will see them again in a few days."

The group said their goodbyes to Harry and James and expressed how happy they were that they were fine and followed the professor out of St. Mungo's.

* * *

A few days later, James and Harry were back at Hogwarts. They had been instructed to meet the headmistress in her office once they arrived. When they entered the office, they saw Hermione, Lily, Ginny, Sirius, and Ron. Professor Slughorn was present as well.

"Now," McGonagall said. "You all know why you are all here. We must discuss what we are to do with these three in order to return them to the time they belong. But before we can do that, we must figure out what to do with them in the meantime."

"I have a question, Headmistress," Slughorn said. "I would like to know how they came to be here in the first place."

"Do you remember in James' seventh year when Lord Voldemort attacked the school? I believe you were teaching then." Slughorn nodded in affirmation. "After he left, we found these three missing. Here is where they went. Now, since they did return, we know there is a way to send them back. But what do we do with them until they can be sent home?"

"Professor," Lily said. "Perhaps we could pretend to be exchange students. That way we don't miss out on school."

"That might be doable, but it would take a lot of work," Professor McGonagall said.

"Yes, we would have to give you new identities."

"Why?" James asked.

"Yeah, I mean, Voldemort knows we're here. Who do we have to hide ourselves from?"

"The students," Slughorn said. "Some of the students are not to be trusted, as we found out last year. Also, it is not widely known yet that Sirius Black is innocent."

"Innocent of what?" Sirius asked. "What did I do? Or not do?"

"You were thought to be a Death Eater who escaped from Azkaban and was trying to get back to Voldemort and kill Harry," McGonagall said.

"Why did he go to Azkaban?" Lily said.

"It was thought that Sirius had killed twelve people with one curse on the night the Potters—" Professor McGonagall stopped.

"I thought it was thirteen people," Slughorn said.

"The wizard didn't die and he was the one that did the curse. Sirius was trying to kill him. I don't blame him, though," Harry said bitterly.

"Why, who was it?" Sirius asked.

"Worry about it later, Black. Back to why we are here. I agree with Mrs. Pott—excuse me, Miss Evans, as they are missing their own seventh years. We must give you new surnames, for all of you are well known. James, we must change your appearance. You look too much like Harry to go around like that."

James looked at Harry, but Harry didn't return the gaze, even though he could feel James looking at him.

Harry then looked up at Professor McGonagall. "Professor, what if we made it so he looks like Sirius. They could pretend to be twins. I mean, everyone is always telling me how much they were alike."

James and Sirius looked at eachother and grinned.

"But, the only way to do that is to use a polyjuice potion and that takes a whole month to make," Hermione pointed out.

"Miss Granger is correct, but if Professor Slughorn has some already made, then perhaps it might be doable."

"It just so happens that I do have some already made, but I do not have enough for him to use over a long period of time. I do not even have enough for James to use while I make more. I am sorry."

Just then, a man barged into the office. "I'm sorry I'm late. I had to—" he stopped talking when he laid eyes on James and Sirius.

"So it's true! Haha! You're here!" he ran up to the two and embraced them in a big brotherly hug. "You have no idea how good it is to see you two!" he laughed. When he let go, he saw the confused expressions on their faces. "It's me, Remus!" he said. James and Sirius' faces dawned with realization and stared at the older version of their friend.

"Wow! You look so old!" Sirius exclaimed. Remus laughed.

"Well, I am twenty years older than you are!" he grinned.

"Professor Lupin, Harry has come up with a rather amusing idea to keep James' identity secret." Remus raised his eyebrows and looked at Harry. "He has suggested we use a polyjuce potion on James to pretend he is Sirius' twin." Remus laughed. "That is a great idea!" James and Sirius smiled at eachother again. "Unfortunately, there is a problem," McGonagall continued. "Professor Slughorn does not have enough potion to last for a while. He does not even have enough to last for the time it takes to make it."

"Headmistress," Remus said. "I do have a little I could spare." The students looked incredulously at Remus and McGonagall nodded in understanding.

"Are you sure you will not need it?" Remus nodded at the Headmistress.

"Very well, then. Horace, would you go and retrieve some of the potion you have and bring it here?" Slughorn nodded and left the office.

McGonagall then turned to the students. "Now, we must discuss what your new names will be. I believe it will be safe to leave the first names as they are, but we must change the surname as I mentioned before. Any suggestions?" There was total silence in the room. No one spoke. "Come now! No need to be shy."

After a few more seconds, Lily cleared her throat and spoke. "My friend, she's a muggle, has the name Martin. I could use that and James and Sirius could use Bradford. That was my mother's maiden name."

"Very well. Now, I would also like to discuss with you he seriousness of the situation," McGonagall said. "We must find a way to get you back to the past as soon as possible. Lives are at stake and life as it is now could change."

"That wouldn't be that bad," Harry muttered, looking at the ground. His voice low so no one could hear him, but McGonagall did.

"Potter, what was that?"

Harry looked up, startled at first, then his face screwed up in anger. "I said, would it really be that bad if things were different? I mean, if they go back to the past, that's great! I get to be born and have the worst life anyone has ever experienced!"

Ginny walked up to Harry and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Harry—"

"NO! I DON"T CARE! OKAY? Look, I've been able to keep it all inside for a year and a half, but this," he pointed to his parents and godfather. "This is too much! I can't do this! I give up. I don't care anymore. It hurts too much to think and live and look at the man that everyone said was amazing and loving and would do anything for the people he loved because what I see is nothing like that. I see hatred and pride. Snape was right. He does strut around, thinking he is all powerful and he's always right."

There was complete silence. Remus looked at James and saw the expression on his face. It was distorted with surprise and pain. He then looked at Harry. He had his head bowed and his eyes closed, anger, fear, and sadness radiating off his body.

"Harry," Remus said. "We told you those good things about your father because they are true. He is amazing, loving, and he would do anything for the people he loves. You should know that, as it is because of that quality he possesses that makes it possible for you to stand here today. He paid the ultimate sacrifice for you! You can't just forget about it! I know that James and Lily wouldn't want you to give up after they gave their lives for you! Sirius did too! He died protecting you just like your parents! I am not going to allow their sacrifices to go to waste!"

"Think about this, Remus!" Harry snapped. "If I was never born, you wouldn't be the last marauder left! Dad wouldn't have died for me! Sirius wouldn't have died for me, and Peter wouldn't have betrayed anyone! You'd still have all your friends! You wouldn't have that look on your face every time you look at me! That hollow look! I can see that you can't help but be angry with me, even just a little! You know it wasn't my fault and that keeps you from showing it! You hate me so much because if it wasn't for me, they'd all be alive and good!" Harry stopped, staring at Remus, panting. He then turned around and left the office. Ginny tried to stop him, but Remus stopped her.

Just then, Slughorn walked in carrying a vile of gray, clumpy looking liquid. "What happened to Harry? He just walked past me without even acknowledging I was there," he said. James glared at Slughorn, and then looked at everyone else.

"So Snape's the one who told him all those horrible things about me to him! He's the one who turned my son against me!" he said, screaming at everyone and jumping out of his seat. Remus, Sirius, and Lily were trying to calm him down. When they finally succeeded, Lily got in front of James and started yelling.

"James Potter! Snape didn't turn Harry against you! You did! You pushed him away from you when you wouldn't back away from him when he was shaking on the ground! You pushed him away when you scoffed at him and yelled at him that he was crazy and was lying! You really did it when you practically disowned him, telling him he's not your son!"

"Lily! I've already had this lecture! Okay? I know I was a jerk! I know I shouldn't have said that! I know I should have given him a chance, but I was scared! How would you feel if you saw your child—"

"I did!"

"I wasn't done! How would you feel if you saw your child at the same age as you and he looked exactly like you except he had his mother's eyes! How would you feel if he told you that the one you loved the most is going to die and so is your best friend ever who is practically your brother! Then, how would you feel if you had a lecture from a seven-year-old boy about this and that I should have given him a chance! Okay? The only reason I fought back to live was to apologize to Harry! That's what I was thinking about almost the entire time I was in St. Mungo's! Now, because of my stupid behavior, he believes Snape over me and thinks Remus hates him!"

"James," Remus said, "It is not your fault. You just came into Harry's life again at an awkward time. He doesn't hate you."

"He's right," McGonagall said. "No one is perfect, but Harry has a picture of you as the perfect person, despite a few things that you did to your schoolmates while you attended here. He had always been told you loved him and he believed it because you died protecting him. Coming and telling him he is not your son is a little unnerving. Now, why don't you go with Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley to the Heads Dorms. You can sleep there tonight. Tomorrow, James, drink the potion and you may go with Hermione and Ron to classes tomorrow. I must ask you not to forget that the potion only lasts one hour. You may go now." McGonagall gave an encouraging smile to James. He did not return it. He just looked at the ground and followed Sirius out of the office.


	13. Truce

Chapter 13

Truce

The next morning, James woke up in Ron's room not feeling any better than he had last night. He got up and walked into the bathroom. He didn't feel like getting ready for the day at all. He just grabbed his robes that Professor McGonagall had provided for him, put them on, and walked out of the room.

"Prongs! Are you okay? You don't look to well." James sat down on the couch.

"Do you remember last night?" he asked irritably.

"Oh come on, James! You heard McGonagall! He's just having a hard time right now."

"Have you ever thought that it might be because of my being here?"

"Cheer up! Today's a brand new day! Who knows what will happen today? Maybe he forgot all about it." James looked up at Sirius and snorted. "Well, then, come on. We only have a few minutes left to get down to the Great Hall. Lily's already there with Ginny and Hermione. She's really worried about you."

"I have to drink the potion first. Go on without me."

"Here's one of my hairs," he said, pulling one out, and then walked out.

James sat there for a few more minutes, staring into the fire. Finally, he got up and retrieved the vile and drank the polyjuice potion. It was disgusting to drink and made James feel sick. He leaned over the bed gasping. When it finally stopped, he looked in the mirror and did not see himself, but Sirius. He left the room and walked toward the Great Hall. It felt weird being Sirius. Sirius was a little taller and his hair was longer and it brushed against his cheeks. James smiled inwardly. _This is actually pretty cool!_ He thought.

He arrived at the Great Hall and walked toward the Gryffindor table. He spotted the real Sirius and sat between him and Lily. Ron was sitting next to Hermione on the other side of the table and he did a double take when he saw James. He then smiled. "Two Sirius's! This is awesome!"

"Remember I'm still called James. Only my last name changed." He looked around the table. "Where's Harry?"

Ron frowned. "He said he'd meet up with us in class."

"Oh," James said, looking down at his plate. After a few minutes, McGonagall called the attention of the entire school. "Students, I would like to inform you that we have received three new students today who have already been sorted into Gryffindor and are in Seventh year. Miss Lily Martin and Sirius and James Bradford." The school clapped politely, looking over at the Gryffindor table, trying to catch a glimpse of the new arrivals. McGonagall sat down once more and the Great Hall quickly turned back to their conversations.

Sirius started eating; Ron and Hermione were talking and Ginny was talking to Lily. James just stared at his empty plate. "You know I'm not really hungry," he said.

"James, you have to eat," Lily said.

Ignoring Lily, James asked, "What do we have first?"

"Defense Against the Dark Arts," Hermione said. James got up.

"Where are you going?" Lily asked. Sirius looked at James.

"Class, where else?" he turned and walked out. James didn't go strait to the classroom, though. He headed to the Room of Requirement. He needed to be alone for a few minutes before he had to face Harry again. He waked into the enchanted room and sat on the couch in front of the warm fire. He thought about what Harry had said about him and about himself. He hadn't said it out front, but James heard that he felt so guilty about causing so many deaths. _But it was our choice to die for you._ He thought. _You shouldn't feel guilty about our choices. _He thought about what Harry had said the night they had been kidnapped. He thought about all the names that Harry had listed off. Himself, Lily, Hagrid, Neville, Cedric, Dumbledore, and Sirius. Seven deaths. Harry blamed himself for seven deaths. _I wouldn't be able to handle that! Seven! I'm going crazy over my parents' deaths! I'd die if I felt responsible for seven deaths! _He looked into the fire and thought about Sean. He thought about how he had made him realize how he had treated Harry. Sean actually saved him. He sat there a few more minutes before deciding to head to class. He was still early, but went anyway.

When he reached the door, he heard voices from inside.

"He doesn't hate you! You should have heard him after you left. He was so upset that you thought of him the same way Snape does."

"But Snape was right. The James Potter you described wouldn't tell me I'm not his son."

"Harry, he was scared and frustrated. He didn't know what to do. He's only seventeen!"

"I'm seventeen!"

"Are you saying you aren't immature at all? You never make a mistake?"

There was silence. "Look, Harry, think of this as an opportunity to get to know your father since you never got that chance. He really is an amazing person. And he is a lot like you."

"Everyone says that."

"But it's true. Even Snape says it, but coming from him, it's probably not meant to be a compliment!" Harry gave a small laugh. "Your father really is an amazing guy. Now you have a chance to find out for yourself. You know, after you left the room last night, James said the only thing that made him want to keep living was apologizing to you."

"Really?"

James smiled at himself and strained to hear more, but didn't get the chance because Sirius came up behind him.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm better." James smiled.

"You know, it's really weird to look at you!" Sirius said, smiling. "I'm not used to seeing myself!" he laughed and James joined him. "You want to go in?"

"Sure."

Sirius opened the door and looked in. He saw Remus sitting on the corner of the desk with Harry standing in front of him. They looked up at him when he entered.

"Hello, Sirius…You are the real Sirius, right?" Remus asked.

"Yep, it's me! Here's James." James came out from behind him and Remus couldn't help but burst out laughing. Harry gave a weak smile as he looked at his father in the body of his best friend.

"What do you think, Harry?" Sirius asked. "Did your idea work?"

"So far," he smiled.

"Hey, Harry. Could I talk to you for a minute?" James asked.

"Can it wait until after class, James?" Remus asked. "Students are showing up and it's about time to start." James looked at Harry, disappointed, and then nodded his head. He took a seat in the front row next to Sirius and Harry sat on the other side of Sirius. Lily, Ron, and Hermione soon joined them..

"Where's Ginny?" James asked.

"She's in sixth year." Ron answered.

"Oh, really?"

Just then, Professor Lupin called the class' attention and everyone settled down. He told them to take out their wands. Remus had given Harry his before class, but didn't tell him how he got it and James had gotten his from Lily the night before.

* * *

"Harry," James said after class. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Um, sure I guess." He followed James to the Heads Dorms. Harry sat in a chair as James paced around on the rug. "Look, Harry, this is really strange for both of us and I really don't know what to say. I have had more than one person talk to me about how I mistreated you and how I was wrong to act like I did. I'm really not like that."

"I know. You were just scared. I shouldn't have dropped everything on you at once."

"It wasn't really your fault. We, er, I pushed you into telling me. You were just as scared as I was. I shouldn't have over reacted. I'm sorry. Truce?"

"Truce." Harry stood up and shook his father's hand. "Just one thing," James said.

"What's that?"

"Don't call me 'Dad', okay?" Harry grinned.


	14. Interesting Meeting

Chapter 14

Interesting Meeting

James was walking around the grounds holding hands with Lily. They were dressed warmly, as it was almost Christmas. They were by the lake. It had frozen over and looked very peaceful covered in snow.

"Hogwarts hasn't changed very much has it?" Lily said.

"Nope, not really. Lils, I want to talk to you about something."

"Yes?"

"Well, I had a dream in St. Mungo's. It was really weird. It almost seemed real. We were on this dirt road and I asked Sean—"

"Sean?"

"That's the boy's name. Well, I asked him if he knew where we were and he had said we were at the end of our lives. He asked me all these questions and I told him about the wizarding world because he thought it was fascinating that I could do magic. He also asked about Harry. I told him what I knew, which wasn't much. He kept wondering why I didn't like Harry very much. That's what got me thinking. His doctors started to save him so he disappeared from the road and I had promised to visit him if we both got out."

"Do you want to?"

"Yes, but do you think it's a good idea?"

"No, I don't because I think it was just a dream and even if it wasn't, Sean might think so. I think we need to stay here."

"I was afraid you'd say that," James said, smiling.

"Now I want to talk to you about something. Did you know that Harry's a Parselmouth?"

"What!" James exclaimed. "How?"

"I'm not sure. Ron and Hermione said something about it in Voldemort's place."

"We should ask them about it."

"I already did. They didn't want to talk about it, really or about the prophecy I mentioned to you. They wouldn't tell me about it. Have you noticed they're always in the library or in Dumbledore's old office?"

"How could you notice that already? We've only been here three days!"

"Well, they have been doing that and they always say it's for a project, but Ginny's with them and she's not in their year."

"Hey guys!" Sirius called from behind them.

"Hello, Sirius," Lily said. "I thought you were going to do something with Ron and Harry today?"

"Well, I was, but they said they had to study for something. And do you know where they're studying? Dumbledore's old office! Odd place to study, don't you think. Also, I don't remember any professors telling us we have a test any time soon."

"They could be studying for N.E.W.T.S," James suggested.

"No, I think something's up. Remember what I just told you, James? They're hiding something from us."

"Yeah, but what?" Sirius said.

"Well, it's not like they're ready to confide in us and I don't think I'm ready for another surprise from the future, so I'm perfectly fine with this." James said.

"Prongs, are you feeling alright? Usually, you hate it when you think people are keeping secrets from you."

"Well, maybe it's time I put my curiosity to rest. I just made peace with Harry and I don't feel like ruining it just yet."

"Well, I for one want to know what is going on with those four," Lily said.

"Me too."

"Figure it out without me."

"All right, James, we will," Lily said. "But if you ever get your curiosity back, we'd be glad to have your help." Lily and Sirius walked back up to the castle, leaving James by himself. He walked along the grounds, looking at the students walk around having normal lives and he felt a twinge of jealousy. It quickly passed as he neared Hagrid's hut. He thought about going to see him, but found two problems with that. One, Hagrid didn't know he was here, and two, Hagrid was dead. James sighed and decided to walk back up to the castle when he heard voices from behind Hagrid's cabin. He moved closer to hear what was being said.

"You're not a professor anymore and are not in charge over me. I can call you what I want."

"If you do, you may find my help will become even more limited." James listened and thought both voices sounded familiar. One sounded like Harry's but the other was difficult to place.

"Do you want the Order to trust you again?"

"If I recall correctly, it was because of you they don't trust me."

"Look, you don't have to like me, but please help me or I'll tell McGonagall where you are."

"Fine. Here. This might help. Don't let anyone else see it except for the people we've discussed."

"Don't worry I won't. I don't want anyone to know what we're doing."

There was a pause, and then the stranger gasped. "I have to go." James stared after the retreating figure, but could not make out who it was. He then saw Harry appear on the other side of the cabin. James followed him. Harry stopped by a tree and opened what looked like a letter from the stranger. He read it rather quickly, closed it, and ran up to the castle. James had to run to keep up with Harry. He saw him go to the head's dorm. James followed him in. In Harry's haste to show his friends the paper, he hadn't noticed James at all.

Harry was by Hermione, Ron, and Ginny, whispering. He heard Hermione gasp and Ron ask, "That's impossible!" James then cleared his throat and the four turned around.

"Oh, hi, James," Ginny said, noticing that his hair was pulled back into a low ponytail so that Sirius and James could be distinguished.

"So what are you guys doing?" James asked.

"We're working on a project," Harry said.

"Oh, alright. Do you need any help?"

"No, no, I think we're good."

"Well, then, have you seen Lily or Sirius?"

"Yeah, they're in the library, at least that was where they were earlier," Ron said.

"Thanks," James said, turning quickly and leaving the room. He walked briskly to the library and saw Sirius watching Lily look quickly through book after book in the back of the library.

"Hey, what are you looking for, Lils?" James asked.

Lily looked up suddenly and asked rather abruptly, "Do you know what a horcrux is?"

"No," he said slowly, then jumped back when Lily growled and slammed the book shut. "There isn't anything in this entire library that has anything to do with horcruxes!"

"Why do you want to know about horcruxes?" James asked.

"We overheard Harry telling Ron…Oh right. You don't want to know, do you?"

"Actually, I changed my mind," he said as he sat down.

"Why the sudden change of opinion, Prongs?"

"I overheard Harry talking to someone over by Hagrid's old cabin. Whoever it was used to be a professor here and apparently, they hate eachother, but must want to do something about something. He gave some sort of letter to Harry and after Harry read it, he ran as fast as he could to his friends. Hermione had gasped when Harry told them and Ron said it was impossible. I couldn't hear what the letter was about, though."

"My curiosity is at its peak," Lily said. "This wasn't the first time I heard one of them talking about horcruxes. They also said something about having to finish before Christmas Break. If so, they only have three more days to get what they want."

"What are they going to do over Christmas? What are they going to do with us?" Sirius said. "They can't possibly think we'll be gone by then do they?"

"Whatever it is, we have to figure it out. Maybe Remus will know what a horcrux is," James said.

"Let's go ask. I don't think we'll find anything in these books about it," Lily said, standing up. The three left the library and headed for Remus' office.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Remus, can we talk to you?" James said.

"Certainly. What do you need?" he invited his friends to sit down and offered them tea.

"No, thank you," Lily said. "I was wondering, well, we were wondering if you knew what a horcrux was."

Remus' smile vanished quickly. "I don't think you need to be looking into that, any of you. That is very dangerous and a lot of people would get suspicious if you started talking about those."

"But what are they?" James asked.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Does it matter?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, it does. I want to know if you want to use one or if you just want to know what Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny are doing."

The three exchanged guilty glances.

"I'll assume it is the latter. If you want to know so badly, why don't you ask them yourselves?"

"What if they don't want us to know?" Sirius asked.

"And I just made up with Harry! I don't want to ruin it now!" James said.

"James, you shouldn't have gotten involved then."

"But I overheard Harry talking to someone over by the Dark Forest! It sounded like someone people here don't trust. How could we not be interested! And Ron said it was impossible, whatever it was the stranger had told him! They're going to do something over Christmas Break!"

"Christmas? No, they're not doing anything that soon. They still have a long way to go."

"You know what they are doing?" Sirius asked. "Why don't you tell us?"

"Padfoot, I can't tell you. It's up to Harry if he wants you to know or not."

"But you are one of our best mates! You have to tell us!"

"No, I don't Sirius. Now, I have a few more papers to grade. Now, either talk to Harry or stay out of it."

The three stared at Remus, shocked. He had never acted like this before. They slowly filed out of the office and walked toward the Gryffindor Tower.

"Now what?" Sirius asked.

"I really want to know what they're up to, but I don't want to make Harry mad," James said.

"Me neither," Lily agreed. "So what do we do?"

"Well, I think we should ask them like Moony said."

"What?" James asked. "I am not risking getting Harry mad at me again."

"I think you should."

"I don't. How about this, you two go and ask, I'll stay behind like I wanted to do in the first place."

"James, come on! Don't be such a baby about it!" Sirius said.

"No, I'm not going to go interrogate Harry! I don't want to make him mad!"

"But don't you want to know about the horcruxes?"

"What do you need to know about horcruxes for?" a voice asked behind them. James felt a chill go down his spine. He slowly turned around and faced a slightly crossed looking Harry.

"Harry, hi," James said.

"Have you been listening to me and my friends?"

"Me, unintentionally, yes. Look, Harry, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to get involved."

"I knew you were stubborn, but I never though you'd do something like this. You have no idea what you've just gotten yourselves into."

"Why don't you tell us, then?" Lily said.

"No, I am not going to put the fate of the world in jeopardy, alright? Neither of you can die because I have to do this now and I can't let Sirius die because he is important in what happens as well. Please, just drop it."

"No," Sirius and Lily said at the same time. Harry and James stared at them.

"I want to know what a horcrux is and why you and your friends keep doing all this research," Lily demanded.

"Wow. I thought I got all my stubbornness from my dad. I had no idea my mother was even more stubborn than my father."

"What's going on?" Ginny asked, walking up to the group followed by Ron and Hermione.

"They want to know what a horcrux is," Harry said simply.

"You didn't tell them, did you?" Hermione asked fearfully.

"No, I didn't. Look, guys can we talk?" Harry said to Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.

They nodded and excused themselves from the time travelers.

"What do you think they're doing?" Sirius whispered to James.

"Debating whether or not they should tell us," James said, glaring at Sirius.

"What? Why are you mad at me?"

"If you and Lily hadn't gotten me involved, then this wouldn't have happened."

"If we hadn't gotten you involved, we never would have found out what they're up to already."

"We don't know what it is yet, Sirius!"

"We're about to! Harry only didn't tell us because his friends didn't want him to! He wants to tell us, though!"

"Whatever," James said, turning away from them. He walked toward the group huddled by the fire to tell them he didn't want to know what a horcrux was, when he overheard something that changed his mind.

"…Voldemort."

He turned around immediately before they noticed him standing behind them. "You guys, it has to do with Voldemort!"

"Oh, so now you're so interested in finding out what a horcrux is!" Sirius exclaimed. "You change sides more than a coin!"

"Sirius, please," Lily said. "Leave him alone. He wants to know now. There's nothing wrong with that."

Sirius opened his mouth to argue, but closed it again when he saw Harry and his friends walking toward them.

"We've decided we will tell you, but we can't promise we'll tell everything, alright?"

The three nodded and Harry said, "We'll meet you in the Room of Requirement at midnight, alright? We can't tell you here."

"Fine. See you then."

The four turned around and James heard Hermione say, "I still think it's a bad idea." He then saw Remus enter the common room. He walked up to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. James walked a little closer to hear what they were saying.

"We need to talk about when we're doing this. We agreed we would go together at the end of the year, but James told me he heard you were going over Christmas? Is that true?"

"What?" Harry said. "He definitely heard wrong, Professor. We just wanted to get the research done by Christmas because we wanted to use the second half of the year to study for our N.E.W.T.S. That's all."

"Very well then, I'll see you in class tomorrow. Goodnight." As soon as Remus left, Harry turned to Ginny, Ron, and Hermione. "Where did he hear we were leaving over Christmas? How much do they know?"

James turned back to his friends and told them he was going to bed. McGonagall had told them they would be sleeping in the tower for the rest of their stay. She had placed extra beds in the girls and boys seventh year dorms. He walked up the steps to his bed. He changed into his pajamas and got into bed, preparing for his midnight escapade.


	16. Don’t Tell Us if You Don’t Want Us to Go

Chapter 16

Don't Tell Us if You Don't Want Us to Go

James woke up at a quarter to midnight and noticed that Harry and Ron had already left. He got up and woke Sirius as quietly as he could. Sirius' sleeping habits were very strange. If you needed to get him up in time for class, you'd have to dump a bucket of water on his head, but if you wanted to wake him up in the middle of the night, all you had to do was whisper in his ear.

When Sirius was awake, they got dressed and headed for the Room of Requirement. They met Lily in the common room and walked to the seventh floor with her. They entered the enchanted room and found Hermione, Ginny, and Ron sitting in comfortable-looking chairs around a small fire.

"Where's Harry?" James asked.

"He'll be here in a minutes," Hermione replied.

The six sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes until Harry showed up.

"Sorry I'm late."

"So what is the deal with the horcruxes and what does Voldemort have to do with any of this?" James asked.

"Voldemort is at the center of all of this. He is the reason we have been researching horcruxes. Before I tell you about the horcruxes, I need to tell you a few other things first. I assume you remember what Voldemort told you about the prophecies?" James, Lily, and Sirius nodded. "Voldemort was right. The second prophecy told I would be the one to defeat Voldemort. Dumbledore told me this at the end of my fifth year. Last year, Dumbledore called me to his office a lot. The reason for all these visits was to study Voldemort's past. When Voldemort was at school here, he asked Slughorn what a horcrux is. A horcrux is an object that contains a piece of someone's soul, but the only way to put your soul into the object is to murder. Everyone that has done this, has split their soul in half only, but Voldemort, because of his greatest fear, split his soul into seven parts." Lily gasped. "There were six horcruxes to begin with. The seventh piece lies within Voldemort himself. Dumbledore and I destroyed two of them. Hermione, Ginny, Ron, and I have worked all year to figure out what the horcruxes are and where they are located. We finally finished the work today and are preparing to leave right at the start of Christmas Break."

"But you told Remus you were going to wait until the end of the year to do it. He was going with you," James said.

"I don't want the last of my father's friends to die. He's not coming with us."

"So where are the horcruxes and what are they?" Lily asked.

"There are four horcruxes left. A cup belonging to Helga Hufflepuff, a locket belonging to Salazar Slytherin, a snake called Nagini, and Godric Gryffindor's sword. The locket is at the Malfoy house, the cups areat the bottom of theBlackSea, the sword is now in the hands of Voldemort, and Nagini is at Voldemort's side."

"Does Voldemort know you're doing this?" Lily asked.

"Yes, he figured it out. That is why he came here to take the sword away from my reach."

"And, you four are going to find these things by yourselves with Voldemort knowing you're doing this, which makes it even more dangerous?" Sirius asked.

Harry nodded.

"No, you're not," James said. "I'm going with you!"

Harry's face turned to stone. "As much as I would like that, it can't be done. You have to stay here. We don't know when the spell will wear off that sent you here or if we have to do something here to send you back."

"Harry's right," Hermione said. "We don't know what kind of problems you being here will cause."

"So, we're problems?" James said.

"No, James," Harry said. "I just don't want to risk getting either you or Lily or Sirius killed. You need to return to your own time. I need to be born and I need to be able to do this now. You have to stay here."

Lily stood up and walked over to Harry. "If you wanted to leave us behind, you shouldn't have told us where you were going."


	17. The Adventure Begins

Chapter 17

The Adventure Begins

Christmas Break was finally here and the seven teenagers had successfully executed their escape plan. They were now at the Leaky Cauldron, but were only planning to stay there for a day knowing people would be looking for them. It was evening and they had all gathered in the boys' room to discuss what they would be doing.

"So where are we going first?" James asked.

"The Malfoy's first. They're closest, but it shouldn't be too hard," Harry said. "Draco Malfoy is with Voldemort, if he isn't dead yet, and Lucius is also with Voldemort. You know, I'm surprised the Daily Prophet hasn't said anything about his escape."

"What about Narcissa Malfoy? Where is she?" Hermione said.

"Narcissa?" Sirius exclaimed. "My cousin Narcissa? She married Malfoy?" Sirius made a look of disgust and James laughed.

"Yes, she did and now has two death eaters in her family, but I have a feeling one of them isn't as evil as he claims."

"Which one?" Lily asked. "Because I'm pretty sure Lucius is evil."

"It's Draco. Last year, he was ordered to kill Dumbledore, but he couldn't do it. Someone else had to do it for him."

"Who?" James asked, getting a bit angry.

"It doesn't matter right now. All you need to know is maybe Draco can help us."

"Are you sure you can trust him?" Lily asked.

"Yes," Ron said. "He's easier to trust than Snape is! Not that I want to trust Malfoy either!"

"Ron!" Hermione scolded.

"Snape?" Sirius and James yelled. "What does that evil git have to do with anything?"

"Right now, you don't need to know that. We'll tell you later."

"How did the locket get to the Malfoy house?"

"In my fifth year, I had been taken away to Sirius' house—"

"Cool! I get my own house!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Actually, it's 12 Grimuald Place." Sirius' smile vanished.

"What were you doing there?"

"You now owned the house and had offered it to Dumbledore to be the headquarters to the Order of the Phoenix."

"Cool! We finally get to join!" James exclaimed.

"Yeah, well anyway, when I was there, I remember seeing a golden locket that I couldn't open. None of us could, so we forgot about it. Last year, after you died, I inherited everything. Mundungus Fletcher, a part of the Order, had taken up a habit of stealing from the house. We asked him if he had sold any jewelry to anyone. He was a bit nervous telling us because he would have to admit he had stolen it. He finally admitted to selling it to Narcissa Malfoy. We still don't know if she told Lucius. If she didn't, it's still in the house. If she did, Voldemort might have that one also."

"When are we going?" James asked.

"Tonight."

"Tonight?" Ginny said. "I thought we were waiting until tomorrow."

"We were, but now Remus knows we never showed up at King's Cross and James told him we were leaving over Christmas. He's going to know we lied to him."

James gave Harry a sheepish smile. "Sorry."

* * *

"Shh!" James told Sirius as he stepped on a creaky stair.

"Sorry!" he whispered.

"Hurry up!" Harry said who was already at the bottom of the stairs.

When they reached the bottom, Lily asked, "How are we getting there?"

"We're flying."

"That's a great idea, except for one thing. We don't have—"

"Taken care of," Harry said, giving Sirius and James brooms. "Ginny will ride with me, Hermione with Ron, and Lily can ride with James."

"What is that?" James asked, looking at Harry's broom.

"A Firebolt."

"Never heard of it."

"Of course you haven't," Ginny said. "It was only made four years ago and no broom has topped it yet."

"Whoa!" Sirius and James cried. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Shh!" Hermione reminded them. "Let's go."

They all walked out of the Leaky Cauldron and down an alley, Hermione and Lily once again placed disillusionment charms on them, mounted their brooms, and took off. Harry was in the lead followed by Sirius, James, and Ron. Hermione and Lily, who didn't particularly like flying, were clinging to Ron and James as if their lives depended on it.

Suddenly, James got an idea. He pointed his broom upwards and he and Lily slowly ascended.

"James what are you doing?" Lily said, panic apparent in her voice. James pretended not to hear her. He continued to climb in the air and finally, started twirling the broom, they did many circles in the air and as Lily screamed, James laughed. He continued his tricks until Lily hit him on the back to make him pay attention to him.

"Oh alright, Lils. You sure do take the fun out of everything." James smiled.

"James Potter, I am going to kill you for that!"

"Whatever you say," James responded.

After thirty more minutes, they were all frozen and were relieved to see the Malfoy Mansion on the horizon. The moon was getting lower; they had to hurry. Another ten minutes and they reached their destination. They landed by the house and dismounted their brooms.

"So how do we get in?" Lily asked.

"I have an idea!" Sirius said joyfully as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife.

"Of course!" Harry exclaimed. "Sirius, that's brilliant!"

"How did you now about the knife?" James asked.

"Sirius gave it to me."

"Why didn't you bring yours then?"

"It was destroyed in the Department of Mysteries."

"Oh."

The group walked to the back door and Sirius adjusted the knife so it would fit into the lock and the door swung open.

The group stared in amazement. The kitchen was large enough to fit the whole Gryffindor house in it, not that the Slytherin homeowners would like that very much. It was evident that the occupants were rich. Harry led the way through the kitchen into the just as large living area. The furniture was extravagant and the tables were decorated with sculptures of silver serpents. The legs of the chairs were shaped the same.

"You'd never know they were Slytherins would you?" Sirius said sarcastically. James sniggered.

"Shh! We don't know if Narcissa's home or not!" Lily reminded Sirius.

"Oh I'd love to see her face if she saw me!" Sirius said.

"That would be bad, remember Padfoot?" James said.

Harry led them up the marble steps to the second level and turned right.

"Do you know where it is?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, it's in the room at the end of the hall," Hermione said.

Harry opened the door and walked into the room. It was slightly small with a table, dresser, and bed on the three walls. In the far corner, was a closet. Harry walked strait for the closet and opened the door. Inside was nothing but a black table with a silver box on a pedestal. Harry reached for the box cautiously and picked it up. He turned around and walked toward the table in the room. Harry opened the box and peered inside. Wrapped in a silk cloth, was a golden oval-shaped locket with the initials S.S.

"What's going on here? What are you doing?" James froze and felt his companions tense as well. They slowly turned around to face the Malfoy who had caught them.


	18. The First Horcrux

Chapter 18

The First Horcrux

James wondered how he could see them. They had put disillusionment charms on themselves, but hten noticed they had worn off. He saw Harry raise his wand and he followed suit.

He stared ahead as the one who had caught them came forward into the light filling the room from the window. James was shocked. It was a boy his age, but he looked much older than seventeen. He had lines under his eyes and bruises on the visible parts of his skin; James was sure there would be more cuts and bruises underneath his robes.

"What happened to you?" Harry asked.

"When you don't do what the Dark Lord says, you get punished, but it's a small price to pay for serving someone as great as him," Draco said as he pulled his wand out."

"You can't take all of us!" Ron said.

"Who said I was fighting you?"

Harry didn't respond. He watched Draco pick up the horcrux and place it in his pocket. He heard Ron whisper something in his ear and Harry responded with, "He couldn't kill Dumbledore. I don't believe he's as evil as he seems." Ron snorted a low snort.

"Follow me," Draco said.

"Why should we trust you?" Ron said.

"Listen weasel, you don' t have to trust me, but if you want to get out of here without my father finding you, you had better do as I say." Draco turned and left the room. Harry was the first to walk forward, but stopped. James wondered why, but then he saw a hand holding his arm. "He's the son of a death eater! You can't trust him! He's a Slytherin!"

"Do you see any other way to get us out of here? No, then I suggest we follow him." With that, Harry left the room. James followed Harry and the rest soon came after. Draco and Harry were leaning over the balcony into the living room. Down below, the room had filled with death eaters.

"There was a charm around the doorway of the closet. That's why they're all here," Draco explained. "This way." He led them further down the hallway to a door on the right side of the hallway. Draco opened it and walked inside, holding the door open until they had all entered.

Draco reached into his pocket and pulled out the horcrux. Harry reached for it, but Draco pulled it back.

"Potter, unless your eager to see the Dark Lord, I suggest you don't touch it. It's a portkey for you. I am assuming you don' trust me even now. I must admit, I was surprised when you did follow me here. To prove I can be trusted, here." He handed the locket to Ron.

"Why are you helping us, Malfoy?" Ginny asked.

"Trust me, weasel, I take no pleasure being around mudbloods, blood traitors, and Potter, but I have my reasons for helping." Draco walked toward the window. "We're in the back of the house. Try not to blow it by getting caught when you get into the air." Draco walked to the closet and got a rope. He tied one end to the bed post by the window. The other end, he threw down to the ground outside the window. James went first (now looking like himself), Sirius, Lily, Ron, and Hermione. As Ginny started toward the window, the door flew open and death eaters started pouring in.

Ginny stopped her attempts to get out of the window to help Harry and Draco, but Harry almost pushed her out the window to keep her safe. He then yelled out the window, "Mount your brooms now!" He turned back around and saw Draco fighting the death eaters.

"I should have known you would help them, Draco!" Lucius yelled.

Harry shot spell after spell at the death eaters. He was standing right next to Draco. They were inching themselves toward the door as fast as they could. They finally reached it and ran toward the kitchen. The ran out the door and Harry hopped onto his broom.

"Hop on Sirius' broom!" Harry shouted.

"I'm not going with you!" Draco shouted back.

"Either come with us or get killed." Draco hesitated a few more precious seconds and then hopped on. Harry and the others pushed off the ground and flew as fast as they could away from the Malfoy house, but the few seconds Draco had spent contemplating whether or not to go, had given the death eaters a chance to catch up. They were now firing spells up at them on their brooms. They dodged them as best they could. James looked at Harry and saw he was sweating. He then saw a spell heading right for Harry.

"Harry look out!" he yelled, but he was too late. The spell hit Harry. They soon figured out what it was, for Harry started withering in pain.

"Harry!" Ginny screamed. She tried to hold Harry on and control the broom, but Harry suddenly jerked violently and knocked Ginny off the broom!


	19. Trusting Death Eaters

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT own anything related to Harry Potter. It belongs to J.K. Rowling.**

Chapter 19

Trusting Death Eaters

"Ginny!" Harry shouted as soon as the spell stopped. He immediately turned into a very dangerous dive to catch Ginny before she hit the ground. He urged his broom to go faster and faster; he was still yards away from her. His speed slowly increased and he stretched his arm downward in order to grab Ginny's raised arm. Closer and closer he came when their fingers finally touched. Slower still, he finally was able to grab her forearm. He clasped his hand around her arm and pulled his broom upward, slowing their momentum. He pulled Ginny up onto the broom and flew as fast as he could from the death eaters to the group of worried teenagers in the sky.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked Ginny. He was shaking with fright, as was Ginny. She nodded her head.

They flew away to the Leaky Cauldron. James followed Harry and Ginny inside. He saw Harry pull Ginny to the side of the hall and into a nook in the wall.

"Are you sure you're alright? I'm so sorry," he heard Harry say.

"I'm fine, really. It was an accident."

"Well, I don't want some accident like that cause your death. You are too valuable to me to loose. I would rather die than loose you."

"The same goes for me, Harry," Ginny said. There was silence and as James passed them, he saw them kissing. He smiled at himself, seeing his future son he had just met still be able to find happiness in this horrible adventure."

"James," he heard Lily call.

"Hey, Lils. Are you alright?" he noticed she had a glazed look in her eyes.

"Can we talk?"

"Of course," he said, leading her away.

"What do you want to talk about?"

"James, we are here, in the future."

"I know that, Lils. Now, what's this about?"

"We just fled for our lives with our son! Our son…_Our _son. After we die, his life just collapses."

"Lily, we die protecting him, remember?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't last long, does it? Sixteen years later, he's chased by death eaters on his quest to destroy Voldemort because of a stupid prophecy! It is our fault we're dead, though! We trusted Peter! We trusted the wrong person! How can one life change so drastically because of one mistake?" Silent tears started to fall down her face. James put his hands on her face and whipped her tears away with his thumb.

"Lily, we couldn't have known. There's no way we could have known."

"Well, now we do! We can change it now so we don't die! We can make sure we're always there for Harry when he needs us!"

"Do you really think that McGonagall will send us back with this memory? Lily, we couldn't have helped it! We haven't made the decision to trust Peter yet. We shouldn't feel guilty. We haven't done anything yet."

"I know, but I still can't help it, knowing I do make that decision."

"Lily Alicia Evans, stop this! We probably did all we could to protect Harry. There was probably nothing more we could have done! Now, go on into the room with Hermione and Ginny and get some sleep. You're going to need it." James smiled at Lily and she smiled back, still with tears on her face. She turned around and walked into the room where she was to sleep.

James walked to the room the boys were sleeping in and found Sirius sitting on his bed listening to the conversation being held between Harry and Ron about Draco. Draco was not in the room, so was not there to hear this argument.

"He can't be trusted!"

"He helped us get away! He fought against his own father to get me out of the house! I don't like him just as much as you do, but there comes a time when we have to trust the people we dislike the most to save ourselves!"

"You know, you've gotten carried away with where you place your trust! I think you spent too much time with Dumbledore last year! First you trust Snape the death eater, now Malfoy, the son of a death eater who's also a death eater!"

"Snape's a death eater?" James and Sirius exclaimed at the same time.

"We're putting our lives in the hands of death eaters!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Snape is on our side and I believe Malfoy is on our side as well. I think we need to give him a second chance!"

"I never thought I'd see the day when you would defend Snape and Malfoy!" Ron said.

"Ron, it's thanks to Snape that we know where the horcruxes are and thanks to Malfoy that we got out of there alive!"

"Why didn't Snape tell us about the charm and the portkey, huh? How do you know he's not just trying to lure you into a trap to give you over to Voldemort?"

"I don't know anything for sure, Ron! I just have a feeling. Malfoy couldn't even kill! Do you really think someone who can't even kill when his life is on the line is really capable of being a death eater? And Snape didn't do what he did last year willingly. Dumbledore told him to! Snape made an unbreakable vow with Narcissa Malfoy, you know that! He told Dumbledore about the Vow and Dumbledore gave Snape permission to fulfill it!"

"WHAT DID SNAPE DO?" James yelled. "You have yet to say it! What did he do last year?"

Harry looked at James surprised. He had not seen him come in. "It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does. It obviously is something that makes a lot of people distrust him and I want to know what he did!"

"How do you know it was Snape? How do you know I couldn't kill him?" came a voice from the door. They whirled around and faced Malfoy. "It wasn't in the Daily Prophet who killed Dumbledore, so how do you know?"

"I was there," Harry said.

"No you weren't. I didn't see you."

"The only reason you got Dumbledore's wand is because he was using that opportunity to defend himself to make sure I couldn't do anything rash. I was under my invisibility cloak. I saw the whole thing."

"So that's why you trusted me," Draco said.

"You still haven't answered my question. What did Snape do?"

Harry sighed and turned to James. "What he did, he did out of necessity. He didn't do it because he wanted to. He did it because Dumbledore told him to. It would take someone very loyal to Dumbledore to do this. I wouldn't have been able to do it. No one in here could have done it."

"He also would have been able to do it if he were a death eater and loyal to Voldemort!" Ron exclaimed.

"Malfoy was loyal to Voldemort and he didn't do it!"

"He's only seventeen!"

"I'm right here, you know!" Draco said.

"Stop dancing around the point and say it!" Sirius said.

"All you need to know is Snape is loyal to the Order, though they don't realize it yet."

"Well, that really clears it up!" Sirius said, throwing his hands into the air.

"I just don't think you need that information yet. Now, I am going to bed now. We are dropping this conversation now and we will not pick it back up, understand. I will tell you what you need to know when you need to know it."

"You can't last long without telling us!" James said. "We will know soon enough. I am the most stubborn person you will ever meet, well, besides Lily."

"Really?" Harry said, raising his eyebrow skeptically. "Add yours and Lily's and that's mine. Now, goodnight." James stared, open-mouthed as Harry got into the bed. Draco followed suit by sleeping on the chair in the room. Ron grudgingly turned in as well. James looked at Sirius and shrugged. He pulled his blankets down and got into bed.


	20. Sitting With the Enemy

Chapter 20

Sitting with the Enemy

The next morning, they woke early, despite their late night. They quicly ate breakfast and left the Leaky Cauldron.

"Where are we going now?" Lily asked as they walked down the street.

"We're going to the airport. The next horcrux is in the Black Sea."

"Why not just apparate or take a portkey?" Sirius asked.

"Because it's too far away."

"How did you get eight tickets? Aren't tickets expensive?"

"I didn't. We're going to have to sneak onto the plane. A train will take too long and won't go over water and there's no other way to get there."

"When does the plane leave?" Lily asked.

"Two hours."

"I've never ridden on a plane before," Ron said.

"Neither have I," Sirius and James said.

"It's not bad at all. It can actually be quite pleasant," Hermione said.

"I'd rather take something else to get there," Ginny said.

"There isn't any other way. Well, come on, then. Let's go."

"We're _walking_? Ron asked.

"No! The airport's miles away. We're taking the Knight Bus."

"Couldn't we just take the Knight Bus to the Black Sea?"

"Technically, it's Romania and no, we couldn't unless you want to spend days on that bus." Harry stuck out his wand and a few seconds later the Knight Bus arrived.

A man in his early twenties stepped out of the bus. "Welcome to the Knight Bus. We are here to help any stranded witch or wizard find their way. I am Michael Cross."

"Where's Stan?" Ron asked.

"Who?" Michael looked at the group, confused, but then his eyes widened. "Oh! Him. He's in Azkaban still."

James heard Harry growl. He walked forward and gave the man eleven sickles and entered the bus. As soon as they were all seated, James asked Harry, "Stan's in Azkaban? What for?"

"To prove the Ministry has a handle on the death eaters and Voldemort. He's innocent."

"Where to?" Michael asked.

"Airport."

* * *

"So how are we going to get onto the plane?" Ginny asked.

In answer to her question, Harry reached into his bag and pulled out his invisibility cloak.

"We can't all fit under there!" Draco exclaimed.

"I know that," Harry said. "Look, two of us can fit inside this comfortable. It will be a squeeze to get three, but here's what we're going to do. Ron, Hermione, and I will go first. I will come back with it and then take Draco and Ginny. Sirius and I will go then and I'll come back for James and Lily."

Harry lifted his cloak over himself and his three friends and they slowly walked toward the gate where the plane was.

James and the rest of the group that was left behind looked around the airport, fascinated, as only one of them had ever been in one before. "Look! There are stores in here!"

"Yes, James. There are also restaurants."

"Really? Wow! This place is amazing!"

"Look how many people there are carrying bags!" Sirius said.

"Sirius, please tell me you aren't seriously intrigued by that."

"Well—"

"Look!" Ginny cried, pointing out the window. They all turned and watched as a plane took off.

"Wow!" James and Sirius cried.

"Honestly, if you don't tone it down, people are going to start questioning your sanity," Draco said.

Just then, Harry came back. "Okay, Ginny, Draco. Come on." Now, the only ones left were Sirius, James, and Lily. Sirius and James continued to admire the airport and the planes when Harry came back. Harry led Sirius away leaving Lily relieved to have him led away.

"I still can't believe we're going to Romania with our son!"

"I still can't believe we have a son!" James smiled. "I never would have thought you'd be the one I married."

"Me neither." They stood in silence until Lily said, "James, does that man look familiar?" James looked at where she was pointing and saw a man in black robes walking with a woman also dressed in robes. The man had blond hair, while the woman had black."

"Yeah, they do, but I can't tell who they are. They're probably nobody."

"I don't thinks so, James. Look at what he's carrying."

James looked and saw a long stick in his right hand. "Could that be a wizard?" James asked.

"Yes, and that woman is a witch." Suddenly, Lily gasped. "James! That's Bellatrix and Lucius!"

"Oh no! We have to tell Harry!"

"I know, but what can we do? Everyone else is already on the plane!"

"We don't know if they can get on. We might be alright."

"What's wrong?" Harry asked as he walked up to them.

"Bellatrix and Lucius are here," James said.

"Where?"

"Over there."

"Great! All right, come here. Let's go and hope they don't board the plane before it takes off." When they were safely under the cloak, they walked toward the gate to board the plane. They entered unseen and walked toward the back of the plane. The plane didn't have many passengers so they were free to choose the seats that weren't occupied. They joined the others. James and Lily sat together in front of Sirius and Draco and behind Ron and Hermione. Harry sat with Ginny behind Sirius and Draco.

"What's wrong?" Ginny asked Harry as she noticed him straining to see the front of the plane. "My parents saw Bellatrix and Lucius in the airport. I just want to make sure they don't get on the plane."

"I hope not. We've had enough trouble already."

Harry turned to Ginny and hugged her reassuringly. Just then, Draco turned around.

"My dad and aunt just got on the plane!"

"Oh no! Tell the others," Harry said. "And stay low!" As he said that, he shrunk in his seat, but not before Lucius saw him. They saw him walk briskly toward them.

"Fancy meeting you here, Potter."

Harry stood up, followed by Ginny.

"We can't fight on a plane, Potter. We'll have to wait until we're off. We'll draw too much attention to ourselves. We'll have to wait until we're off the plane." Lucius smirked and Bellatrix laughed at the indignant look on Harry's face. "Hello, James and Lily. How are you? Is your stay in the future satisfactory? How about yours, Black? Ah, Draco, I thought I might find you here! The Dark Lord is not happy with you right now, but I'll let him deal with you when the time comes." Lucius looked around. "It looks we'll have the entire back of the plane to ourselves. I think Bella and I will sit here," Lucius waved his hands to the seats beside Harry and Ginny. "And if any of you feel the need to move around anywhere, you'll have to bring either Bella or me with you. We don't want you getting lost." Lucius smirked and sat down in the isle seat across the way from Harry.


	21. Airport Fight

Chapter 21

Airport Fight

James kept glancing over his shoulder, paranoid. He did not like the fact that Lucius Malfoy was behind him, watching every move he and his companions made. There was no conversation the entire ride. James noticed Draco shake slightly throughout the trip. Harry had a scowl on his face and Ginny looked extremely worried. Ron and Hermione sported similar expressions as Ginny. Lily held James' hand and Sirius kept shooting daggers at his cousin. James was dreading, he was sure everyone else was too, the landing of the plane. This flight was fourteen hours long, but even with that much time, they still wouldn't reach their destination. They had to catch another flight. Now with two death eaters watching their every move, they would never be able to do that.

A flight attendant came back and asked them if they wanted anything to eat or drink.

"No, no, I believe we're all good," Lucius answered, making Sirius even madder, for he was about to reach for juice. The flight attendant eyed Lucius, Bellatrix, and the teenagers. "Your children don't look too well. Is there anything we can do to help them?" she asked.

"We are not their children!" Harry burst out, standing up. "We hate them! They're trying to kill us!"

Lucius just smiled at the attendant. "Teenagers. And, no ma'am. Only one of them is my son. We are just watching his friends as well. I believe they will be fine." The attendant just stared at Lucius and walked away.

Lucius stood up and stepped toward Harry who was still standing. "One more outburst like that, Potter, and we won't waste any time. We'll just kill you right once we get off the plane!" he snarled.

"I thought Voldemort wanted to finish me off himself?"

"That is true, but I cannot say the same about your precious girlfriend."

"Leave Ginny alone!" Harry said.

"Lower your voice, Potter! Or we will apparate out of this plane!"

"You can't take eight of us with you!" Harry said.

"Sit down, now!" Lucius put his hand on Harry's shoulder and pushed him down.

"Get your hands off him!" Ron called.

"I'd sit down, too, Weasley," Bellatrix said, walking toward him.

"There are eight of us and two of you. You can't control all of us!" James called.

"All I have to do is tap this with my wand," Lucius said pulling out a small glass ball, "And we will be joined by more death eaters than you can count! Now, sit down!" Again, Lucius moved to push Harry into his seat. When Harry was seated, Ron and James followed. Lucius turned and sat down next to Bellatrix.

A few hours later, the plane started to descend. James knew they had to do something. They had to do something by themselves. There were no teachers around to help them; like there were ever teachers or adults to help them. Just then, the same flight attendant who had appeared earlier came back.

"Excuse me, but could you show me your tickets, please?"

Lucius stood up. "I have them here somewhere," he said, feeling around inside his pocket, but instead of pulling out tickets, he pulled out his wand. "_Imperio!"_

"Sorry, sir for the trouble. You're clear."

"Thank you, ma'am for your understanding." Lucius then turned his attention to the teenagers. "Now, here's how we're leaving the plane. The Potters will be first, followed by my son and Black. After that will be the Blood traitors and the mudblood. I will be in the front and Bella will be behind you."

Lucius walked down the isle and James noticed they had no choice but to follow. James walked behind Lily and Harry. They left the plane and immediately headed for the door. They got many odd stares from the muggles passing them. They were a strange sight. Eight teenagers walking in between two adults. Harry slowed down and started walking beside James and Lily.

"I'm going to stun Malfoy so be prepared. Tell Hermione to stun Bellatrix after I stun Malfoy. Tell the rest to be prepared." Harry then walked forward, back into his original spot in line. He made sure there was time for everyone to receive the message. He reached into his pocket slowly and pulled out his wand. He raised it slightly and, using what Snape had taught him about keeping his mind and mouth closed, pointed his wand at Lucius.

"Lucius!" Bellatrix yelled, seeing Harry's' wand. He turned around and faced Harry, and barely dodged the spell, which hit a book display and blew it up, causing people to scream. Lucius grabbed his wand and the silver orb he had shown Harry on the plane.

"No!" Harry screamed as he reached for the orb, but Lucius had already tapped it and in five seconds, the airport was filled with wizards in black robes firing spells at innocent muggles as well as the teenagers. James fought as hard as he could, keeping an eye on Lily and Harry at the same time. Sirius was fighting with Bellatrix and he saw Harry move over to him and push him away from Bellatrix.

"Hah! You don't want to see your godfather die again, do you?"

"Stop talking and start fighting!" Harry shouted. As James was watching this, Lucius had grabbed him from behind!

"James!" Sirius cried, running toward him, but James stopped him because he saw Lily being grabbed from behind by a large Death Eater.

"Sirius," he chocked. "Lily!" Sirius turned around, but turned back to James.

"Get Lily!" he shouted. Sirius nodded, turned around, but ran into a short, stubby Death Eater with a silver hand.

"Peter!" Sirius screamed. James watched Sirius tackle their former friend as he struggled against Lucius. "Get off of me!" James screamed. He fought against Lucius with all his might, but to no avail until Lucius started screaming and dropped him. James turned around and looked at the pained Death Eater who has fallen to the ground. Behind him, Draco stood with his wand pointed at his father.

"What are you waiting for?" Draco cried. "Help your girlfriend!" James scrambled to his feet and ran at the Death Eater holding Lily.

James fired a curse at the Death Eater, but it didn't hit the one it was intended for. The masked wizard threw Lily in front of it and she was thrown fifty feet back and landed on a cart of candy.

"No!" James screamed and ran after her.

"No, Lily! Lily, please! You have to wake up! Lily! No!"

"_Crucio!_" James heard someone scream. He turned around and started screamling as the curse hit him, but as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. James turned around and saw Sirius had stunned the Death Eater. "Come on!" he said. "Bring Lily. We've found a way out. I have to go and get Harry and Ginny. The rest are already out there! Quickly!" Sirius led James off and out a door into the parking lot, which was also swarming with Voldemort's followers. "Get inside that car right there!" Sirius said, pointing to a red mini van.

James rushed over to it, and opened the door. "Here! Lily's hurt. I'm going back to help Harry and Sirius."

"Are you mad?" Draco asked.

"James, you can't," Hermione said. "You have to stay here!" James didn't here her, though. He was already half way back to the building. He burst in and looked around for any sign of Harry or Ginny or Sirius. He saw a patch of red disappear behind a bookshelf inside a gift store and ran after it. He found Ginny fighting with two Death Eaters. She was hit with a Cruciatus Curse and fell to the floor. James ran forward and stunned one of the Death Eaters, who fell to the floor. He dodged a curse from the other cloaked man and then stunned him. He picked up Ginny and ran out of the shop. As he did so, he saw Harry fall to the ground next to Sirius. Sirius stood up and face the Death Eater. Just then, the hooded figure threw back his hood to reveal that he was not a Death Eater, but Voldemort.

"No," James whispered to himself. He saw Harry roll across the floor dodging a green flash of light coming from Voldemort's wand. Sirius hit Voldemort with a curse and sent him flying backwards. Sirius ran towards Harry and picked him up. Something was wrong. Harry needed Sirius' help to stand.

"Come on! Come on! Come on!" James whispered. "Hurry!" he shouted at them.

Sirius picked up the pace a little and soon reached James.

"What happened?" Harry asked, seeing Ginny.

"The Cruciatus Curse." Harry's eyes widened.

"Will she be alright?"

"I don't know, but we'll worry about it more when we get out of here! Thanks to the Death Eaters, the place is starting to collapse!"

They soon made it to the parking lot and walked as fast as they could to the mini van. Sirius helped Harry in and James handed Ginny to him and then he and Sirius climbed in themselves.

"Ready?" Hermione asked from behind the wheel.

"You know…how to drive?" Harry asked, panting.

"My parents wanted me to learn how." The car started moving and they were soon on the road, leaving the destroyed airport behind.

"Are you okay, Harry?" Ron asked, noticing how tired his friend looked.

"Yeah, I'm…I'm fine," Harry said, smiling an unconvincing smile. Harry turned his attention to Ginny.

"Ginny, Ginny. Wake up. We've gotten away," he said softly, rubbing his hands through her tangled hair.

James looked for Lily and saw she was lying back in a seat in the back of the vehicle.

"Lils?" James crawled as cautiously as he could to reach her. It was very cramped in the car, which is expected with eight people in the car. He reached her and sat next to her, putting her head in his lap.

"Lily? Can you hear me?" He rubbed his hand over her cheek. He felt so guilty, even though it was an accident. She stirred and her eyes fluttered open.

"James?"

"Yes, Lily, what is it?"

She shook her head and closed her eyes again. Satisfied that Lily would be alright for the time being, he turned his attention to his son, running his fingers through Ginny's hair, waiting expectantly for her to wake up.

"Where are we?" James asked.

"Sibiu," Hermione answered.

"You can read Romanian?"

"No, Ronald. This is where the plane was scheduled to land. Now we need to find another airport and find a flight to Constanta. It's right on the Black Sea."

"Where are we going to stay?"

"We might have to sleep in the van if we can't find anywhere else to stay," Hermione answered. "But I'm looking for something, so don't worry."

"How will we pay for it?" Ron asked.

"We'll find a wizard and pay him or something because none of us have muggle money."

The talking slowly stopped and Ginny still hadn't awoken. James grew tired after a while and leaned back in his seat hoping to catch some sleep, but with all the thoughts buzzing around in his head, he could not.


	22. Premonition

Chapter 22

Premonition

James' mind wandered all throughout everything that had happened since the night he was sent to the future. Harry Potter is his son. Lily Evans is his wife. He and Lily are dead. Sirius is dead. Peter betrays the Potters. His son is Voldemort's main target. His son has faced death more times than he could ever imagine. His son is on a quest to destroy Voldemort. He had to live through Voldemort's return—wait! Return? When did he leave? When did he take a break? What happened? And the Horcrux they have, weren't they supposed to destroy it? Where is it? Did they already destroy it?

"Where's the locket?" James asked, startling the entire car.

"Right here," Ron said, pulling a gold chain from his shirt.

"Why haven't we destroyed it yet?"

"We need it to get to Voldemort's lair. We don't know where it is," Harry said.

"How is that necklace going to help us?" James asked.

"When Potter touches it, he and anyone else touching it is transported to the Dark Lord's lair, remember?" Draco said.

"Oh, right." The van became silent once again. James looked at Lily and brushed her beautiful red hair away from her face. She stirred, but did not wake.

The car remained silent until it was almost dark. "I don't think we'll be able to find a place to—"

"Hermione, look out!" Ron yelled, pointing at the road. There was a man standing in the road, blocking their way. Hermione slammed on the breaks, causing the passengers to suddenly lurch forward. She stopped inches away from the man. He walked right up to Hermione's door and asked her to unroll her window. She cautiously obeyed.

"Is Harry Potter in here?" The occupants of the car became eerily quiet when the man said this. He had blue eyes and red hair with a receding hair line. He had many wrinkles from too much sun and spoke with an accent. Finally, Harry spoke. "Why do you want to know?"

"I am Christopher Brunson, Top for short. I heard Mr. Potter was here in Romania and had a little trouble when he arrived. I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help."

"That's very nice, but I think we'll be alright."

"No, you will not, Mr. Potter. You don't know what has been going on all day today. Trouble is astir like none ever seen here by wizards or muggles alike.

"You're a wizard?" Ron asked.

"Of course, boy! What muggle would have heard of the Boy-Who-Lived? 'Cept the ones who were asked about you by the men in black cloaks."

"Death Eaters? Asking for me in Romania? Why?"

"All day, they've been asking us. I must have been asked fifty times. They're mighty desperate to get you."

"I'll bet," Harry said.

"So is it true? Are you really the only one who can stop He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"

"You said you could help us?" Hermione changed the subject.

"Ah, right. I have a house about a hundred yards away from this spot. Me and my wife live there. It's not much, but it should do. How many of you are there?"

"There's eight of us."

The man's face fell. "I'm afraid we only have three extra beds set for one each. Of course, my wife and me could give up our bed and you could also use the sofa…"

"Oh, no. Three beds and a sofa will do fine. The floor would be perfect as well," Harry said. "Anything's better than sleeping in a van!"

The man laughed. "Alright, then. You can leave the car here. It won't fit through those trees. Lara'll be so excited and relieved to see you. She's been worried sick about you, Mr. Potter, ever since those men asked about you!"

It took a few minutes to get out of the mini van. When thy finally got out, James carrying Lily, Sirius carrying Ginny, and Ron helping Harry stand, they walked through the woods behind Top.

Soon enough, they reached a small cottage like one in a fairy tale right down to the perfect flowerbed growing in front of the porch, though at the moment it was covered in snow.

"How charming!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Please!" Draco said, rolling his eyes. Hermione just scowled at him.

"Well, here it is. Follow me and I'll introduce you to Lara." He walked up the porch and opened the door. "Lara! I found Mr. Potter! He's got some friends with him too!"

The next thing they heard was a woman in her mid thirties running down the wooden stairs. She looked a lot like Mrs. Weasley, save the green eyes and blond hair pulled back into a tight ponytail.

"Oh! Top! You found him! I'm so glad." She rushed up to her husband and hugged him. Then she turned to Harry.

"Harry Potter! It's a pleasure to meet you," she said, shaking his hand.

"It's nice to meet you too, Mrs. Brunson."

"Oh, please, call me Lara. Ever since those nasty men came to our house asking for you, oh! It was so terrifying! How can you stand knowing they're all after you? That You-Know-Who's after you?"

"I'm sort of used to it by now."

James felt a twinge of guilt when Harry said that. It reminded him he wouldn't be around to help his son for long.

"Oh!" she cried, noticing Lily and Ginny being carried and Ron supporting Harry. "Here, bring the girls and Harry. We'll lay them down on a bed upstairs."

"Mrs. Brunson, I'm fine."

"Well, I just want to make sure and I told you to call me Lara." She led the group upstairs into a bedroom with two beds on the wall. James laid Lily on the first bed and Sirius laid Ginny on the second one.

"What happened to them?" Lara asked.

"Lily was hit with an impedimenta jinx and landed on a candy cart," James said, guiltily. "But, she'll be fine. She's just sleeping now."

"And her?" Lara said.

"Cruciatus Curse," Harry said.

"No! You're not serious?"

"I'm afraid we are."

"Oh, and there isn't a magical hospital for miles! We'll have to do the best we can here. Harry, we have another bed right here." She walked over to the wall and pulled on a string. A portion of the wall fell and revealed a foldaway bed. She pulled it down and motioned for Harry to sit on it.

"No, I'm fine, really."

"I'd rather be safe than sorry. We'll bring up some food for you and I'll allow your friends to eat here as well. I expect you're all very hungry and tired. We'll ready the couch downstairs and put a few blankets on the two chairs. We're still two short. If you don't mind, we can pull out more blankets and lay out a few on the floor or you could try to share a bed. Anything you want."

"I'll sleep on the floor," Sirius said.

"So will I," James said.

"Alright. You just relax up here and I'll bring some blankets and food."

They were alone again. Harry immediately got off his bed and walked over to Ginny's. He sat by her pillow and stroked her hair again.

"I'm sure she'll be fine," James said.

"Yeah, Harry. She'll get better," Hermione added.

Harry didn't say anything. He just looked into her unopened eyes and held her hand.

Ron walked over to Ginny's bed and stood by Harry. He placed his hand on his shoulder for comfort. "Don't worry. She's a Weasley and Weasley's fight." He smiled, but Harry didn't return it.

"She didn't wake up the entire ride here. I'm afraid she'll stop breathing."

"Harry, I don't know Ginny very well," James said. "But I do know that she loves you as much as you love her. She'll pull through."

"Th—" Harry coughed. "Thanks," he finished.

The door opened and Lara came in carrying two trays of four plates each. Top came in behind her carrying stacks of blankets.

"You sure have a lot of blankets," Sirius said.

"Well, we have very harsh winters here. It's always good to have extras around," Top said.

"I brought up two extra plates just in case the girls wake up," Lara said, setting the trays on the table in between the girls' beds. "Help yourselves to some food, when you're ready."

Sirius walked up to the tray and grabbed a plate. Everyone followed but Harry.

"Harry, you need to eat," Hermione said.

"I'll eat later."

The room fell silent. The Brunson's noticed the uncomfortable silence and decided to break it.

"You are welcome to stay here as long as you want."

"We probably won't stay too long. We need to get to the Black Sea as soon as possible and we have to stay on the move so Voldemort doesn't catch up to us."

The couple shivered at the sound of the name. "Well, I guess we'll leave you to sleep. The couch and chairs are ready for you when you want. We're going to head on to bed now. Goodnight," Top said.

"Goodnight," the group called. "Thank you."

The couple smiled, left the room, and closed the door behind them. No one spoke as they ate their dinner. James kept glancing at Harry from his spot next to Lily's bed to see if he had started eating, but he never picked up his plate.

Just then, Ginny sat up suddenly. Her eyes were open, but they were foggy. She turned to Harry and grabbed his shoulders and started shaking him.

"Harry! Go back home! He's coming! He knows where you are and where you're going! He knows… He's going to kill you! The full moon! Harry! He's waiting for you! Leave this place!" Ginny was now standing up and pushing Harry toward the door. James had run over to Ginny and tried to release Harry from her grasp, but could not. Even with the help of Sirius, Ron, and Draco, they couldn't.

"He'll kill your father again! If you go any farther! He'll kill your mother! He'll kill you, Harry! Don't go! Don't go!" Ginny's eyes suddenly closed and she let go of Harry and fell to the floor.


	23. The Waxy Candle

Chapter 23

The Waxy Candle

"Are you all right?" Lara asked, running into the room. "What happened?"

"I tripped," Harry lied.

"It sounded like someone was shouting. Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

"Well, if you need anything, we're right down the hall." She left and closed the door behind her.

Harry walked over to Ginny. They had managed to get her back on the bed before Lara had entered.

"What was that about?" Sirius asked.

"I'm not sure, but whatever it is, it's not good and it better not be permanent or hurt Ginny,"

Harry said.

"Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going to sleep downstairs away from all you people before something else bizarre happens," Draco said, walking out.

"It's probably a good idea to go to bed," Hermione said. "I'll sleep downstairs."

"Me too," Ron said. "Goodnight,"

The rest wished them a good night and watched them leave the room.

Sirius readied the blankets for himself and James as James said goodnight to Lily, despite the fact that she couldn't hear him.

"You going to sleep, Harry?" James asked.

Harry didn't answer.

"Harry?"

"Yeah, just a sec," Harry leaned down and kissed Ginny on the forehead. He stood up and walked to his bed. James made sure Harry was sleeping before he himself went to sleep to make sure Harry got some much needed rest.

Thankfully, the night was uneventful and most of them had slept in. James woke to a quiet shriek coming from Lily. James rushed over to her.

"Lils, it's alright. We found some nice people to let us stay with them. We're safe. Lils, I'm so sorry! It wasn't supposed to hit you."

"I know you didn't, James. You don't need to apologize." Then, Lily noticed Ginny. "What happened to her?" she asked, alarmed.

"The Cruciatus Curse."

"Oh! Harry must be so upset!"

"He is, especially after what happened last night." Lily gave James an expectant look, knowing he would explain his statement. "Ginny suddenly woke up and grabbed Harry. She started shaking him and telling him to go home because…because Voldemort is going to…kill Harry soon." James shuddered "Just saying it is terrifying."

"We don't know that for a fact, though, right?" Lily asked.

"No, we don't know, and Harry's still going to continue his quest."

Just then, Ginny stirred. She moved her head so she was facing Harry, though her eyes were closed. "Harry," She called softly. "Harry," she said again, a little louder than before.

"I'd better wake him up," James said walking toward Harry.

"Harry," He said, tapping his shoulder. Harry jumped, causing James to scream and trip over Sirius.

"Ow! Prongs! That hurt! Why'd you wake me up? It's not like we have class!" Sirius said, rubbing his leg James had stepped on.

"You scared me!" Harry exclaimed.

"Sorry! You scared me!" James said sheepishly. "I just thought you'd like to know Ginny's calling your name."

Harry's smile immediately vanished as he pulled his blankets off him and walked toward Ginny. He sat on her bed and held her hand. "I'm here, Ginny. I'm right here." Ginny moved her head once more to face Harry. Her eyes fluttered open. She looked around at the room and her eyes suddenly grew fearful.

"We're at the Brunson's aren't we?" she asked.

"How did you know that, Ginny?" Harry asked.

"We have to leave now! Voldemort's coming! He'll be here at noon! What time is it?" she asked. Harry looked at his watch. "Eleven thirty."

"Harry, please trust me! We must leave now!" Ginny stood up speedily, but fell backwards into Harry's arms. "Take it easy, Ginny. We'll leave now, but please be careful." Harry's eyes became fearful because Voldemort was on his way and Ginny knew about it.

Ginny stood with the help of Harry who had fully recovered his strength. James and Lily were the last out the door and walked into the room where the rest were sleeping.

"Wake up! Wake up! We have to leave now!" Ginny bellowed. Draco jumped off the couch and fell to the floor, as Ginny had shouted right over his ear. Ron woke up quickly as well, but in not the same manner as Draco. Ron thought it was pretty funny seeing Draco fly. It reminded him fondly of Draco Malfoy: The Amazing Bouncing Ferret. Hermione got up and asked, "Why do we have to leave?"

"Voldemort will be here in thirty minutes!" Ginny cried.

"Ginny! You're alright!" Ron exclaimed and rushed over to hug his sister.

"Later, Ron! We have to leave."

"What's all this about leaving?" Top asked, walking in from the kitchen. "Oh! You're awake! Wonderful!" he said to Lily and Ginny.

"Voldemort knows where we are and we have to leave now! If we don't Harry's going to die!" Ginny cried.

"He's coming here!" Lara cried and practically fainted into her husband's arms.

"You had better leave too," Harry said. "We don't want him to hurt you just for helping us."

"We have a cellar outside. We can hide in there. I'm not leaving my property," Lara said.

"Come on! We have to go!" Ginny pleaded.

"I'd feel a lot better if I knew you were safe," Harry said.

"Don't worry, Mr. Potter, we will be. Now, it's a matter of life and death here, so I want you to leave right now!" Top said.

"We can't thank you enough for letting us stay with you," Hermione said.

"It was our pleasure. Now, go on! We don't want to be responsible for not letting you leave," Top said.

They gathered the few things they had brought inside with them and walked, or rather were pushed by Ginny, out the door. They walked through the trees and found the van they had used last night.

"Now where?" James asked.

"Away from here," Harry answered. "We'll figure out more later."

They filed into the van and Hermione started the car. The car was tense with silence. Ginny had really been freaked out over something. _Was it a dream? Or a vision? Whatever it was, she thought it was real. Better safe than sorry, I guess._ James thought.

They drove for a few hours when Hermione announced, "We need more gas."

"We need more what?" Ron asked.

"It's what the car runs on."

"I thought it ran on the road and we have plenty more of that!" Sirius said.

"No, Sirius. We put gas in the engine and it makes the car able to move."

"We don't have to get gas," Lily said.

"How else are we going to keep the car moving?" Harry asked. "You were raised with cars. You should know."

"I do know, Harry, but we can use a charm to keep it going without gas. I used it on my parents' cars so I can do it on this."

* * *

"Now where are we?" Ron asked.

"I'm not sure."

"Look! There's a city up there. Maybe we can ask someone where we are," Draco said. "I also suggest we get out and stretch our legs also. I'm desperate to get away from you Gryffindors."

"If you want to." Hermione ignored the last sentence he said and drove the car further into the city and parked on the side of the street. They all hopped out of the car and stretched. It felt wonderful after being trapped inside a car for five hours.

"I'm hungry!" Sirius said.

"Me too," Ron said.

"I think we all are so let's stop complaining and find someone who can help us," Harry said.

"Who made you the leader of us?" Draco said.

"No one, I'm just trying to help us out, Malfoy, now get over it and help us!" They walked down the street after Hermione put a locking charm on the mini van.

They asked every person they could if they spoke English, but no one they could find had any idea what they were saying. They sat down on some stone steps to rest.

"Maybe if we split up, we can find something quicker," James suggested. "We could meet back at the van in an hour?"

"It wouldn't hurt to try," Hermione said.

They stood up once more and split into pairs. James went with Lily, Ron with Hermione, Ginny with Harry, and Draco with Sirius.

James and Lily walked all over looking for someone who could help them, but each new attempt was another failure. They now had fifteen minutes left and were feeling very discouraged.

"Great! Now it's snowing again!" James exclaimed.

"Come on, then. Let's go ask inside that building right there. The name is also in English so there's bound to be someone who speaks English in there." Lily and James walked up to the building. The sign over it read "The Waxy Candle."

They walked in and found the place was dimly lit. All the occupants kept to themselves and wore dark robes.


	24. Groan The Library

**Hey! Thank you so much for reviewing! (Gasp!) And you did it without being asked! You deserve a cookie! No, sorry i don't have any. well, here's the next chapter! **

Chapter 24

(Groan) The Library

"Harry!" James called, running up to the red van. "We found a place to stay! And they have food!"

"Yes!" Sirius cried. "Where is it?" He was jumping up and down at the prospect of food, as was everyone else—including Draco…

"Not too far from here. It's down Grabute Alley in the back of a pub."

"What do you mean? Like Diagon Alley?"

"Yeah! It's like the Romanian version of it! Come on! There's a man there waiting for us," Lily said.

"His name is Mihail. He owns the inn."

"Let's go, then," Sirius cried. "I'm starving!" They followed James and Lily through the streets of the city Victory. Mihail had informed them of where they were. They soon reached the Waxy Candle and walked towards the back. They opened the door; James and Lily led them down the alley.

"What's it called?" Sirius asked.

"The Poison Apple Inn," James answered.

"What?" Ron said.

"Mihail says he named it after the witch who poisoned that princess with an apple in the fourteenth century," Lily said.

"Don't you find it odd that they named it after an evil witch?" Hermione said.

"I did at first," Lily admitted. "But when I walked in, there wasn't a shady character in sight. It's really wonderful," Lily said.

"Here we are!" James said, stopping in front of a sign with a bitten apple on the sign. James led them inside and walked to the back where there was an office. They found Mihail inside working on some papers.

"Oh, hello, James, Lily," he said gruffly. "These must be your friends. Excuse me while I send this owl to a friend," he said, standing up and walking over to a cage where a black owl was sitting. He opened the cage and attached the envelope to the owl and she flew off.

"Now, I have just the rooms for you all. You can have two of the rooms. They're right next to eachother, so that's convenient," he said, handing James some keys. It was then that he saw Harry and noticed his resemblance to James.

"Are you two twins?" he asked.

"No, we're…we're—"

"Cousins," James said, giving Mihail a smile as he eyed them suspiciously.

"So anyway," Harry said, "Where are our rooms?" he asked.

"Follow me and I'll show you." The large man stood up and walked out the door. Mihail walked them up the stairs and all the way down the hall to two rooms across the hall from eachother.

"Each room has two large beds. Sorry I didn't have any extra beds or rooms, but it'll have to do."

"Great, now where's the food?" Sirius asked hurriedly, his eyes wide and mouth watering as his hands twitched.

"This way," Mihail laughed. He led them back downstairs to the main lobby and called to the bartender.

"Hey, Andrei, can you give these guests some service? Give them the best food in the house! They look like they could use it."

"Aye," Andrei said, as he finished cleaning up a few cups behind the bar. "It'll be ready in ten minutes tops!" he called.

Sirius whooped and sat down next to Ron who was already seated with fork in hand.

"Please, tone it down, you two!" Hermoine said.

"Why?" Ron asked.

"Three reasons. One, you're acting mental, two, you're making me even more hungry, and three, we can't afford to draw attention to ourselves."

The food soon arrived and they all dug in. The meal, not surprisingly, lasted over an hour as they kept filling their mouths with food (The boys even put some food in their pockets to eat later). When they finally walked up to the designated boys room, they all sat on the beds and discussed what was to be done next.

"We could just keep driving until we get to the sea," Sirius suggested.

"No way!" Draco called. "I am not going to be stuck with seven Gryffindors for days in a small car with Gryffindor colors!"

"Cool down, Malfoy," Ron said. "The van doesn't have any gold on it." The others laughed, but it was brought to a stop when Harry spoke.

"We will drive."

"Harry's right," Hermione said as the others groaned. "We have to stay one step ahead of the Death Eaters and Voldemort as well as members of the Order and if we drive, it won't be as easy for them to follow us."

"The Order?" Ginny said. "When did the Order come into the picture? It's not like Snape can tell them where we are or where we're going."

"When we fought in that airport, it probably showed up in the Daily Prophet, which means Remus and the rest know where we've been."

"But they don't know where we're going, though," Harry said. "They don't know about the Horcruxes."

"But Remus did," Ginny reminded him.

"And I'll bet Remus told them about it!" Ron said.

Harry ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "This is harder than I thought it would be," he said. "And I thought it would be pretty hard, especially with you three," he said to James, Lily, and Sirius.

"So how are we going to figure out how to get there?" James asked.

Harry thought for a moment, but Lily interrupted his thoughts. "The library."

James and Sirius groaned. "Why the library? It's not like they will have a book about that tells you how to get to wherever we're trying to go!

"Actually, they probably do, but we wouldn't be able to return it if we were allowed to check it out. We'll use a computer."

"A what?" Ron, Sirius, and James asked.

"A computer. It's an electronic device we can use to find information."

"Oh, okay," Sirius said, giving the crazy sign to James behind Lily's back.

"Where are we supposed to find one?" Harry asked.

"We could ask Mihail."

"Why don't you go do that? We'll be right here," Sirius said.

"I'll go with you," Hermione said, standing up and walking out with Lily.

"So where is it we're actually going?" James asked.

"We're flying to a city called Constanta; it's right on the Sea. When we get there, we'll head out to an island out in the Black Sea. It's uncharted and no muggle can see it or get near it. We're going to have to fly out to it on our brooms. It's not that far out. It'll probably only take two hours tops."

"Where are the cups located on the island?"

"Down in a tunnel at the center of the island. It'll take only a day to get to the center. There are a bunch of hurtles we'll have to get through. I'm not sure what they are, though. We'll have to be really careful."

"While we were at school," Ginny said. "We did research on all the dangerous creatures and objects Voldemort could have put there. We should be alright for the most part."

Just then, Lily and Hermione came back in.

"There's a library about ten minutes from here. Who's going to come with us? We don't all need to go," Hermione said.

"I'll go," Ginny said.

"Me too," Ron said. "I want to see what a computer is."

"I think I'll stay here," James said, stretching. "I want to get some sleep."

"I'll stay too," Harry said.

"Okay, but before we go, where exactly are we heading?"

" Constanta," Harry said.

"Thanks. We'll be back in thirty minutes," Lily called. The four left for the library, leaving Sirius, James, Draco, and Harry behind.

"I'm going to sleep," James said. "I'm exhausted." He yawned, causing Sirius, Harry, and Draco to yawn, though Draco tried to hide it.

"Have you ever wondered why yawns are contagious?" Sirius asked, pulling back the blankets on his bed.

"No, I haven't," Harry said. "I'm always thinking about something else." He laughed.

"I can't believe I'm still here with you people," Draco said.

"Don't worry, Malfoy, we hate you too!" Sirius said in the tone of voice that one would say, "I love you!"

James laughed and Harry couldn't help but smirk. James laid his head on his pillow and his eyes got heavier and heavier by the second until, finally, they closed.

* * *

Before they left the next day, they went to buy food to take with them so they wouldn't go hungry. When they walked out of the shop, Sirius exclaimed, "It's Moony!"

"Where?" Harry asked. He looked where Sirius was pointing. Remus had just walked out of The Poison Apple and was now heading their way.

"Run!" Harry shouted. They ran for the Waxy Candle and soon reached it. They caught their breath, sitting at a table for a minute, but couldn't stay long, for Remus had just walked in. He looked around and James met eyes with him.

"Harry, he sees us!" he said. He heard Harry gulp and stand up. The rest followed.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD WERE YOU THINKING, HARRY JAMES POTTER?" he screamed. Remus had never used Harry's full name before.

"YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED! SIRIUS, JAMES, OR LILY COULD HAVE DIED! YOU PUT EVERYONE'S LIVES AT RISK! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS? HOW COULD YOU LIE TO ME LIKE THAT?"

"Remus, I'm sorry. This is just something I need to do without any help from you or any other adult. It has to be all me."

"If you wanted to do it by yourself, then why did you bring your friends and your parents, Sirius and…" he noticed Malfoy for the first time. "What's he doing with you?"

"It doesn't matter. Please, don't tell anywhere where we are."

"Oh, I won't. You will. You're all coming back to Hogwarts with me!"

"No! I'm not going back until this is over and Voldemort is dead!" Harry shouted.

"You might not live to return to Hogwarts if you don't come now! You have to wait and go with the Order. Yes, Harry. After you didn't show up on the train, I told them about the Horcruxes."

"Remus, I'm really sorry, but this is something I have to do on my own." With that, he turned around and ran out the door.

* * *

It was noon and they had safely gotten to the van and drove off with Hermione behind the wheel. Thankfully, there was no sign of Lucius, Bellatrix, or any members of the Order following.

The ride was wonderful. They slept a little and talked a little, but James noticed Harry did neither the whole trip. He looked really worried and he occasionally saw Ginny try to comfort him or get his mind off whatever he was thinking about.

"I should be the one doing that," Lily said suddenly.

"What do you mean?" James asked.

"I'm his mother. I should be the one trying to comfort him." James put a comforting arm around her and kissed her head. She fell asleep listening to the sound of his heartbeat.


	25. The Island

**IMPORTANT! READ THIS! OKay, it was brought to my attention(by DiTS Thanks!) that Romania is smaller than i made it sound. Instead of a second plane flight, I changed it so that they drive to Constanta. I changed it because I want this to be geographically correct. Well, here's chapter 25! Enjoy! And no, I don't have the cookies. I tried to make them, butI burned them. Sorry!**

Chapter 25

The Island

They arrived at a harbor in Constanta not too long after dark. James followed Harry to the edge of the docks and looked out into the water as they listened to the rhythmic splash of the waves hitting the boats tied in the harbor.

"We'll have to leave now," Harry said. "I know we're tired, but we need the cover of darkness so we won't be seen by anyone."

Harry grabbed the brooms out of the back of the van and handed one to Ron, James and Sirius.

With the same partners as before, they took off over the Black Sea. James looked down at the restless waves below. They seemed to be trying to reach James so they could pull him into their depths. The turbulent sea continued hissing at them in the dark as they came closer and closer to their destination.

Soon, the island was in view. It was covered with trees and looked foreboding. There was fog all around and you could barely see in front of you. The salty sea air mixed with the smell of rotting flesh, creating an acrid smell. They soon stepped on the sandy beach and walked forward. There was an eerie, deafening silence surrounding the place. It was as silent as death. Not even the leaves made noise when rustled by the wind.

Harry decided to break the silence. "That forest is too thick to fly through, so I guess we'll have to carry our brooms through."

No one argued. They followed Harry warily through the trees, jumping every time one of them stepped on a twig or bumped into another on accident. Eight wands lit their way as they traveled further into the night. Unfortunately, the further and further they went, the more and more nervous they got.

Just then, Harry stopped.

"What is it?" Ginny asked.

"Shouldn't something have happened by now? We've been walking for a while."

"I don't know, but look!" James said, shining his wand over at a sign to the right of them.

It read,

Certain Death Awaits Anyone Who Passes Here.

Turn Back Unless You wish To Face Your Fears And Perish.

"That's the Dark Mark!" Lily cried, pointing at the spot on the sign where a skull with the snake coming out of his mouth appeared.

"We're definitely in the right place, then," Harry said. "Come on. Let's go." Harry walked forward slowly. James was right behind him. The further they walked, the colder it became until they could see their own breath. Suddenly, a chill ran down James' spine.

"It's a dementor!" Harry cried.

"Not just one…" James said. He poised himself to face the oncoming creatures and saw Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny do the same. Lily looked horrified; Sirius started shaking; Draco hid behind a tree.

Just then, a slimy, rotted hand moved the tree branch away and dementors glided toward them.

"_Expecto Patronum!_" Harry yelled, and out burst…a stag? James stared at the Patronus. Harry's patronus was him! His son's patronus was Prongs! James felt ecstatic and yelled, "_Expecto Patronum!_" A brilliant light illuminated the sky. James was in awe of how powerful his patronus was. It had never been this strong before. His lion patronus ran the dementors over with the help of the other ghost-white animals that had been emitted by the others. James held the patronus as long as he could and watched the dementors slowly retreat. Just then, they heard a terrifying scream.

"Malfoy!" Harry said. He ran into the trees. James followed him. He was lying on the ground, half covered by some sort of black, flat, mammoth-sized worm.

"Help!" Draco coughed, seeing Harry and James.

"_Expecto Patronum!_" Harry yelled. The stag erupted from Harry's wand again and galloped toward the creature that was smothering Draco. The creature gave a terrified shriek as it was pushed away by the patronus.

Harry and James ran to Draco and helped him up. "Get me away from here!" he screamed. He tried to walk, but screamed in agony. "That monster crushed my ribs!" he exclaimed.

"Come on, Malfoy. Let us help you!"

"Just get me away from here!" James and Harry made to pick Draco up again, when they heard another scream.

"Ginny!" Harry cried. He abandoned Draco and James and ran off. "Harry!" James called, but Harry was already too far away. He helped support Draco and walked him over through the trees where he saw Lily and Hermione.

"Lily, can you help him? He says some of his ribs are broken. I have to go find Harry. Where's Sirius?"

As Lily laid Draco on the ground, she said, "He was with Ginny and Ron last I saw. His ribs are only bruised, James…James!" She called as she looked up to see him running away.

James ran through the woods listening to the screams that were echoing through the woods. He reached a clearing where he saw Harry fighting someone. He couldn't see who it was until he got closer. It was Voldemort. As he ran forward, the scene became more bizarre. There were also dead bodies around, but the faces weren't strange to him. The dead people were Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione. _But that's not possible. Harry, Ron, and Ginny are right here! _ He came closer and heard Voldemort talking to Harry.

"You failed, Harry! You failed. You couldn't save your friends in time. They are dead, Harry and it's your fault. You killed them Harry. You led them to me. How could you have even imagined defeating me? Your parents couldn't do it. Dumbledore couldn't even do it! What made you—"

"No! Harry cried. "You're not real! _Riddikulus!_" Harry called. James watched as Voldemort staggered backwards, but came forward again. James ran beside Harry.

"I can't think of anything funny to turn him into!" Harry panicked.

"Go help Ginny, then. I'll take care of this!" James said. Harry ran off towards Ginny who had knelt next to a dead Harry. James turned toward Voldemort. He was prepared for what it would turn into. He knew how to handle his fear, but the boggart did not turn into what he expected. It turned into a lifeless Lily.

"No!" James breathed. He watched the boggart as it changed then into a dead Sirius. James stared at it.

"James! Snap out of it! I'm not dead!" he heard Sirius call, but it didn't register in his head. Then, the shape shifter turned into Harry. James was sure it was Harry, but it wasn't the seventeen-year-old boy he had met, but a tiny infant that was crying and had a lightning bolt cut on his head. Then, the baby sat up. Baby Harry stared at James and looked sadly and angrily up at James.

"NO!" James cried. The baby then grew up into the older Harry. He walked up to James and pushed him to the ground. "You should have protected me better!" he called. James stared as the fake Harry towered above him. "You should have been there! It's your fault I have this stupid life and this scar on my head! It's your fault I have the most feared wizard trying to kill me!" James was so wrapped up at what the fake Harry was yelling that he didn't hear the real Harry yelling the exact opposite of the other Harry, trying to tell James that it wasn't true. The boggart kicked James in the gut. James cringed and rolled up into a ball. The fake Harry picked James up by the collar and punched him. "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" he cried, throwing James through the air. He landed with a thud at the feet of the real Harry. He looked up into the green eyes of his son and mouthed, "I'm sorry." The boggart, now the only one left, walked toward James, but Harry stepped in front of James and faced the boggart. It immediately changed into the taunting Voldemort.

"You failed, Harry. I won. You lost. The wizarding world is now mine! Your friends are dead because of you, Harry. You are so worthless! Even your parents didn't fight hard enough to protect you." The boggart laughed maliciously. Harry walked toward the boggart and punched it. It fell over, but immediately stood up again and charged at Harry. It was then that Ron stepped in front of Harry. The boggart changed into a dead Harry.

"Ron?" Harry whispered. Ron ignored him and walked toward the dead Harry, which had now turned into Hermione just as dead as Harry had been. Ron raised his wand at the boggart, but couldn't bring himself to curse it…it was Hermione. The boggart then turned back into Harry. This time, he was covered in blood. It hadn't been the killing curse that had killed this Harry. "Ron!" Harry shouted. He ran up to Ron's side. The boggart turned back into Voldemort and started telling Harry how he had failed to save his friends, but in mid-sentence, changed into a dead Harry, Hermione, then Voldemort. It was getting confused, but that wasn't enough to destroy it. They needed to laugh, but there was nothing funny about letting down your friends and letting them die or seeing your best friends die.

"Let's just go, now!" Sirius said. "While it's still thinking!" Sirius pulled Harry's arm back he and followed. Ginny helped her brother away and they ran to the rest of the group. Lily, Draco, and Hermione had joined them, and had seen the last bit of the boggart fight.

James was still in shock and hadn't recovered from the fake Harry. Harry kneeled on the ground next to his father.

"James?" he asked.

"I'm so sorry, Harry! Please! I didn't mean to let you down! I should have…I should have held him off…I should have killed him…I should have gotten you out of there…"

"Stop it!" Harry called. "You haven't done anything yet! You don't even know how hard you fought and from what I've heard and seen since you came here, I can bet you fought as hard as you could have! You gave Mum and me time to run! The only reason we couldn't get out was because Voldemort had sealed all the exits! It's not your fault! It's Voldemort's!"

James looked up at Harry, his eyes watery. "Harry…"

"Please, Dad, it's alright."

"Say it again. Say Dad again," he said, half delirious. Harry smiled. "Dad. It'll be okay. Everything will be all right. I don't blame you."

**DiTS, about the names, Narisa is Romanian, not Roman. The man's name in Greek mythology was named Narcissus, not Narcissa. And thanks again for pointing that thing out about Romania. I really do appreciate it. I'm just not good at reading or looking at maps! hehe ok buh by for now!**


	26. Oneirogenic Mud

**Thanks to my reviewer! Love you sooooooooooooooooo much! Well, here's the next chapter to The Timeless Tale!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing Harry Potter. NOTHING! It belongs to J.K. Rowling.**

Chapter 26

Oneirogenic Mud

James kept glancing at Harry, scared he might blame him again for all the misery he had to face. James reminded himself, once again, that Harry had not said that.

Last night, many of them had to explain their boggarts to the rest. Ron's apparently, had changed from a giant spider to dead friends. Harry's had changed from a dementor to a victorious Voldemort who told Harry it was his fault his friends were dead. Ginny's had changed in to a dead Harry. What it had been, James didn't know. His boggart surprised him as well. He had to explain to Lily and Sirius why his had changed. Truthfully, he did not know. Sure, he was afraid of those things, but the last time he had encountered a boggart (in Defense Against the Dark Arts class), it had shown Lily hating him again, which gave everyone a good laugh. Now, it was Lily dead, Sirius dead, and Harry blaming him for his rotten life. He had no idea when he had become afraid of that. He just hoped he would never have another encounter with a boggart again.

His thoughts were interrupted when he ran into Sirius.

"Why'd we stop?" He looked around and it answered his question. It was a sphinx.

"Excuse me, but could you move? You're kind of in our way," Sirius said.

"No, I cannot. Not unless you can answer my riddle. Answer it correctly on your first guess, and I will let you pass. If you do not, I will attack. Remain silent, I will let you walk away from me unscathed."

Harry looked around at his companions. They looked a little nervous as they looked up at the creature with the body of a lion and head of a human. They then returned Harry's questioning eyes with the okay to ask for the riddle.

"Alright. You can give me the riddle."

_"Soft as a petal that falls from a tree, _

_The more I dry, the wetter I'll be. What am I?" _

"How can it dry and get wetter?" Draco asked.

"That's why they call it a riddle, Malfoy!" Ron said.

James remained silent. _What's soft? What dries? What gets wet as it dries? Oh! It dries not itself, but something else! It gets wetter because it soaks up the moisture off the object and drying the object! It's… _

"A towel," James said, though he wasn't the only one to say it. Lily had said it as well.

"You knew that?" Sirius asked.

The sphinx nodded and smiled. Suddenly, the ground opened underneath them and they fell down onto a stone floor.

"Is everyone alright?" Harry asked. There were several grunts in response.

"Where are we?" Sirius asked.

"_Lumos,"_ Harry said. They were in a square room with only one way out—the hole in the roof they had come through.

"I thought he said he'd let us go if we answered the riddle!" Draco said.

"He did. There's got to be some other way out of here," Harry said, searching the walls.

"What are you looking for?" Ginny asked, walking up behind Harry.

"Anything that will show us how to get out of here." He waved his wand along the wall. There was nothing anywhere that gave the smallest inkling that it could help them get out of this.

"So how long is this going to take?" Sirius asked, leaning against the wall. Suddenly, he screamed and fell backwards.

James turned to see what Sirius had done, and saw that a section of the wall had been moved to reveal a stone staircase. Harry walked toward it and looked down the steps.

"They're pretty steep and look really long."

"Are you sure we should step on them. What if it's a trap and something bad happens?" Lily said. Harry walked forward and placed his foot on the first step cautiously. Nothing happened. He moved further down the staircase and still nothing happened. "I think it's alright," Harry said. The others followed warily down the dark staircase. James was the last one to start down the long stairway. Just as he put his foot on the first step, the stairs flattened and formed a stone slide. The teenagers screamed as they slid down the flight at breakneck speed.

"What's going on?"

"What happened?"

"AAAAHHHH!" They were all screaming at the sudden disappearance of the stairs as they slid faster and faster down the chute towards what—no one knew.

James splashed down into a dark, gooey liquid that was so thick, it felt like he had landed on stone. As hard as he had hit it, he was only in it up to his knees.

"What is this?" James asked, trying to lift his foot out of the goo, but found he couldn't. He felt himself grow numb and his panic rose.

"I don't know, but I have a feeling if we don't get out of it soon, we won't be around for long," Harry said, trying to step out of it. He was the first person to fall into it and it was now up to his waist. James looked around. The goop was covering the ground as far as he could see.

"Are we sinking?" Ron asked.

"I think we…" Harry stopped. He looked around, his face growing fearful.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Hermione asked.

"Get away from me!" he screamed, his arms flailing as if he was struggling with an imaginary opponent.

"Harry!" Ginny screamed, as she desperately tried to get to her boyfriend, but her movements only made her sink farther under.

"What's ha… No! No! No! No! No! Get away from him! Leave him alone!" Sirius called, trying to run.

"Oh! I know what this is!" Hermione panicked. "It's Oneirogenic Mud! It makes you numb and causes you have your worst nightmares. When it's over, you pass out! That's why no one has ever survived before! They sink completely and suffocate before they return to consci…AAAAAHHHH! No! Ron!" Her screams began to mingle with those from Harry and Sirius. They were soon joined with Ron, Ginny, and Lily.

"Great! Just great!" Draco exclaimed. "I knew I should…No! Master, I'm sorry. I just couldn't do that…I'll do better next ti—AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

James stared in shock as his friends started twitching and sinking further and further into the muck. Suddenly, they didn't look normal. They started to melt away. His friends were replaced with Death Eaters. Voldemort was leading them toward James. He looked around for a way out, but saw none. He looked down at himself and noticed he looked a little older and he was in the center of a circle made up of Death Eaters

"What do you want?" James cried.

"You, your wife, and your son dead. That is what I want. I want every last Potter extinct so no one can destroy me!"

"You will not touch either Lily or Harry!"

"I highly doubt that. No one can last against me for long. No one is more powerful than me!" Voldemort bellowed. James raised his wand.

"You think you can fight me?" he laughed. "I don't. You wouldn't dare. Especially since I have possession of the two things that you care most about in the world." Voldemort waved his wand and Lily and baby Harry appeared in front of him, bound.

"Let them go!" James bellowed, panicking as he saw his infant son in the midst of such evil.

"Not a chance, Potter!" Two Death Eaters came up and restrained him as he moved towards Voldemort. "I am going to make you suffer! You will watch your sweet, beautiful wife die a slow, painful death, then, you will watch your young, innocent son perish. After that, I will kill you!" Voldemort raised his wand at Lily. James watched, horrified as his beloved wife was put under the Cruciatus Curse. He heard her piercing scream of agony and watched helplessly as rage boiled inside him. He wanted to kill this man before him. "Leave her alone!" he shouted. In response, Voldemort laughed. He stopped the curse and looked at James and smiled a cruel smile. He turned back to Lily and put the curse on her again.

"NO!" James cried, fighting with all his might against the Death Eaters keeping him from Lily. The curse stopped again. Lily didn't move. James' face fell as he looked at his motionless wife.

"Don't worry, Potter, she's not dead yet. "_Crucio!_" This time, Lily didn't scream; instead, she just twitched involuntarily with pain. Voldemort once again, lifted the curse. "Say goodbye, Potter. "_Avada Kedavara_!" With a flash of green light, the last bit of life left in Lily vanished. James could not breath as he stared at the body of the one he loved. He couldn't tear his eyes away from her. He felt the tears well up in his eyes as he looked at Lily. James hardly noticed Voldemort had turned to Harry and had picked him up. Harry started screaming and crying in terror, drawing his father from his daze.

"Put him down!" James cried hoarsely.

Voldemort walked towards James, his son in his hands. Voldemort held Harry right in front of James' face. James looked into the terror-filled emerald eyes and his heart broke. James violently jerked in an attempt to free himself from his captors' grasp, but to no avail. "Take a good look, James Andrew Potter, for this will be the last time you see the angelic face of your sweet Harry James Potter!" Voldemort cackled as he pulled Harry away once more and watched James' futile attempts to save his son's life. Voldemort raised Harry up in his left hand, drew his wand up in his right, aimed the wand at the baby's heart, and whispered, "_Avada Kedavara!_"

James let out an earsplitting scream as he watched his lifeless son hit the ground. "Now, you shall join them, James. _Avada Kedavara!_" James watched the green light speed toward him and he felt his body go limp and all went dark.

* * *

James opened his eyes blearily as he looked around. "Where am I?" he asked. He saw nothing but a table set up against the wall with nothing but a candleholder with three lit candles on top. He then, noticed a red haired girl with bright green eyes. "Lily!" he cried as he threw his arms around her. "James! It's all right! It was just a dream!" James pulled away as memories of what had just happened came to him. "How did we survive? Aren't we supposed to be dead?" he asked shakily, still upset over the nightmare.

"Yes, we should be dead, James," Hermione answered. "But there was no bottom to the pool of that mud so as we sunk lower, we just fell through. It really wasn't that deep."

"Why would Voldemort do something like that?" James asked, rubbing his throbbing head.

"I can't even imagine," Hermione said.

"Where's Harry?" James asked.

"He's over here," Sirius called, hearing the question. "He's alright," he added.

"What do we do now?" Ginny asked, standing up.

"We go down this tunnel," Harry said, walking toward the table.

"What tunnel? I see no tunnel!" Draco said. Harry continued to walk toward the table and grabbed the right arm on the candleholder. There was a large shaking feeling and the sound of stone scraping against stone as a section of the right wall disappeared.

"How did you know about that?" Lily asked in awe.

"I woke up first and couldn't get any of you awake. I looked around and discovered this. Come on. It's a ladder, not stairs. It won't turn into a slide."

"It could come off the wall," Draco said.

"Then, let's go one at a time," Harry said. "We have to keep going. I'll go first."

"Be careful, Harry," Ginny said.

"Don't worry," Harry said as he started down the ladder. Once he reached the bottom, he called up to them and Ginny started down. When they had all reached the bottom, they found that they were underneath the island. The walls were transparent and on the other side of the walls, they could see the water beneath the sea. They heard the water move around them as the current turned. James marveled at the sight as he turned around in a circle.

"This is not what I had envisioned for the place the Horcrux would be hidden," Harry breathed as he walked toward a transparent hallway. He followed the hallway for a few feet and found a smaller room with a golden table in the center. On top of the table, was a golden box. Harry cautiously walked up to it and opened it.

"Is that it?" James asked as he walked in. Harry nodded. "We did it. We found it."

"So how do we destroy it?" Ron asked. Harry raised his wand. "_Reducto!_" The spell left the wand and hit the cups. James watched as the cups blew up right in front of him.

A cold, drawling voice suddenly sounded from behind them, sending a chill down James' spine. "I would not have done that if I were you, Harry."

**About the dream that James had...it was just a dream! Nothing else. It does not mean Harry is nonexistent, as you figured out. It was just a dream.**


	27. The Final Horcruxes

**This is a veryviolent chapter andsomeone dies.If you don'tlike violence, then don't read this one cus it's way worse than the rest, at least it is in my opinon, not sure if you'd think the same thing so yeah. Here's the next gory chapter...**

Chapter 27

The Last Horcruxes

James turned around with the rest of his companions and laid his eyes on the cruel figure trying to murder his only son. Lord Voldemort walked in with Death Eaters pouring in behind him. The room was filled with the masked villains, waiting for the signal from their master to attack.

Harry now had his wand drawn as he faced Voldemort. James drew his wand and saw the rest do the same.

"You are in over your head, Potter. This foolish quest of yours will only end in your demise. I applaud you for your efforts, though. An admirable job, but I cannot allow you to continue to destroy my soul."

"I know exactly what I'm doing, Voldemort. I even see a way out of this little Death Eater party without hurting anyone in the process," Harry said. James stared at Harry. _A way out? Where? _He was not the only one confused. The Death Eaters looked around to see if there was a path through them the teens could get to. James could see the confused expression on his friends faces as well…until Ron put his hand inside his pocket and slowly drew it out. He lightly tapped everyone around him to get his or her attention. James then noticed a hint of gold in Ron's hand and he realized what Harry had meant. It was the Horcrux that had been made into a portkey to Voldemort's lair! James grabbed the locket with everyone else and waited for Harry to touch it.

Voldemort laughed at Harry. "You are so annoying, did you know that? You are the pebble in my shoe that I just can't seem to get rid of, but that ends tonight." Voldemort raised his wand and opened his mouth. "_Avada—_" Harry flung his arm back looking for the locket. Ginny grabbed his hand and placed it on the Horcrux and the Death Eaters and Voldemort disappeared. They landed with a thud on the stone floor of a large room with a single throne-like chair at the end and a fireplace on the wall.

"Throw it in the fire!" Harry called. Sirius picked up the locket off the ground and ran across the room to the blazing fire in the wall and flung the Horcrux into the flames.

"Come on!" Harry yelled, standing up and running for the door. "We have to find the sword and the snake before Voldemort realizes where we are!" The rest quickly followed and ran down the hall. Harry opened every door he could find, looking for the sword or the snake. He found neither. Becoming desperate, he flung open the last door on the hall and ran inside. The room had wooden walls, and was bare, except for the sword mounted to the wall. Harry ran up to it and grabbed it, but right when he touched it, he was flung back to the opposite wall, landing on his left side.

"Harry!" Ginny cried, running to him.

"Harry, are you okay?" James asked, helping Harry sit up. He was holding his left arm. "I think my arm's broken."

"Here, let me see," Lily said, rolling up his sleeve. Everyone winced at the sight of his arm. It was clearly broken. "Can anyone heal bones?" She asked desperately. No one spoke as Lily looked around. "Well, here. This is the best we can do, then." Lily conjured up a sling and wrapped it around Harry's arm and shoulder to keep it as steady as possible. Harry didn't like the fact that he had to wear a sling to keep his arm steady, especially in front of Voldemort, but he had to admit, it could help it from getting worse.

"I can't touch the sword. How do we get it down?" Harry asked.

"We could summon it?" Ron suggested, though not really believing it could be done.

"No, I don't think it'll be that easy. There's got to be some other way."

"Can't we just destroy it while it's on the wall?" James asked.

"Try it, but I don't think it'll work. It was Godric Gryffindor's sword. I don't think it will be that easy to destroy." James walked toward the sword and pointed his wand at the weapon. He muttered a curse, but instead of hitting it, it backfired and barely missed James as he ducked, causing the spell to hit the wall.

"That didn't work, well, did it?" Draco said.

"Well do you have any brilliant ideas?" Hermione snapped.

"That was a clever exit, Harry, but there is no way it will help you again! You are trapped!" Voldemort's voice rang through the room. "None of you can touch it! I am the only one who can get it down without being thrown back, which I see you have discovered. It cannot be destroyed with a spell and cannot be melted."

Harry stood up as Voldemort strode over to the sword. He grabbed the hilt of the sword and turned to Harry. "This is a rather remarkable sword, don't you agree, even if it is a Gryffindor's." Voldemort waved his wand and eight Death Eaters filled the room and they each grabbed one of the teenagers.

"Stop struggling, Potter! It won't do any good!" The man whispered into James' ear.

"Malfoy!" James cried as he realized who it was that had grabbed him. Sirius cut him off as he cried, "WORMAIL, I WILL KILL YOU!"

Voldemort raised his hands for silence. In one hand, he had the sword. In the other hand, he had his wand.

"You might want to calm down a little, Black. People are always at their weakest when they are angry." Voldemort turned his attention to the Death Eater holding Harry. "Let the Potter child go, Bella," Voldemort commanded. Bellatrix let go of Harry and flung him forward and he landed at Voldemort's feet, causing his sling to become loose and fall off.

"_Expelliarmus!_" Voldemort called. Harry's wand flew away from him and into Voldemort's hand that already held one wand. "Bellatrix, please take this wand and destroy it. He won't need it anymore." He handed the wand to the loyal Death Eater and Bellatrix gladly took it. Harry forced himself to get up and he went after Bellatrix to save his wand. He didn't want to lose it. It meant as much to him as his Firebolt, if not more. It gave him a sense of security when he had it near. He couldn't let it get destroyed.

_"Crucio!_" Voldemort cried, causing Harry to fall to the ground in pain. It took all his might not to scream. He would not give Voldemort the satisfaction of hearing his screams. When the curse was lifted, he looked up at Bellatrix who was now holding a broken piece of wood in her hands. "No," Harry breathed. His only weapon was gone. He turned back to Voldemort who was laughing at him. "Don't worry, Potter, Death might be painless, then again, maybe it won't! _Crucio!_" Harry fell face down onto the ground as the curse hit him again. James watched in agony as Harry twitched violently at the merciless hands of Voldemort.

"Stop!" he cried, without realizing he had said it out loud. Voldemort stopped and looked at him. "I don't think so, James. I am enjoying this too much." Voldemort turned back to Harry and cursed him once more. James fought with all his might against Lucius. He kicked and wiggled and screamed as he struggled with his adversary. "Let me go!" he cried desperately. Lucius just held tighter. Finally, James kicked him as hard as he could in the shins. Lucius winced and involuntarily let James go. James rushed forward, grabbed his wand and shouted, "_Impedimenta_!" Voldemort was thrown backwards and dropped the sword and his wand as he landed fifteen feet behind him. James ran for the wand, but Lucius took the wand first and recaptured James. Harry, seeing his opportunity for a weapon, grabbed the sword and stood up shakily. The sword was still heavy, but not as heavy as the last time he had used it. Harry turned to Lucius and pointed the sword at him. "Let him go!" he cried. "Now!"

Lucius didn't move. He just held James tighter. "Let go, you bastard!" James cried.

"Let him go!" Harry cried, more stubbornly. Lucius shook his head and tightened his grip even more. Harry raised the sword higher, and put it to the back of Lucius' neck. "Let him go!" Harry said slowly. "Or I will kill you!" Lucius hesitated, and then smiled. "You wouldn't kill me! You can't kill, Potter!" Lucius sneered. Harry angrily raised the sword and hit Lucius on the top of the head with the hilt of the sword. Lucius swayed slowly and fell backwards, causing Hermione and others to gasp. James crawled away from the Death Eater and gasped for breath.

Just then, Voldemort grabbed Harry from behind around his throat. Harry tried to scream, but it came out sounding like a gag. "Get the other Potter, Wormtail! What are you waiting for?" Voldemort cried angrily. Wormtail, snapped out of the daze he had been in and ran to James, but James stunned him, then turned to the other Death Eaters holding his companions. He stunned the one holding Lily and she released herself.

"Go help Harry!" she cried. "I'll get the rest!" James ran at Voldemort, who had picked up his wand again, and shot a curse at him, but Voldemort deflected it. Voldemort had started backing out of the room with Harry. Harry had dropped the sword on the ground as he abandoned the weapon to try and loosen the hold Voldemort had around his throat. James picked up the sword and ran at Voldemort.

Voldemort left the room and half carried, half dragged Harry along with him with James running after him. Voldemort ran into the room they had first entered and threw Harry to the ground. "I would walk out of here if I were you," Voldemort cried. "I wouldn't want to risk causing my son to not exist, but if you insist, I will kill you again!" James raised his wand at Voldemort, dropping the sword.

"You will not kill me!" James cried. _Harry! Grab the sword!_ He thought. _Grab it! Destroy it! Find out how to destroy it! _ He watched Harry out of the corner of his eye, slowly crawling towards the weapon. Voldemort sent the killing curse at James, but he quickly dodged it. James fired curse after curse at Voldemort. James dodged many curses from Voldemort, but also got hit with a few. He was bleeding and bruised; his arm was broken and his ribs were bruised, but he kept fighting. Harry had left the room not two seconds before in search for the snake, but James wouldn't last much longer. He had to get out of here! He couldn't die yet. James sent a jinx at Voldemort, causing him to fall backwards. James immediately ran out of the room as fast as he could in search for Harry.

James found Harry in a room not too far away from the first room. James stopped when he saw he was talking to the snake, with the sword raised. James couldn't understand what Harry was saying. _He can speak Parseltongue? Oh, Lily told me about that._ James watched. He could tell the conversation wasn't going very well. He heard Harry angrily speak a few words, raise the sword and bring it down, but the snake had moved. "Get back here!" Harry cried in English. James watched as Harry tried to kill the snake. James saw the snake slithering towards him. He raised his wand and stunned it.

"Thanks," Harry said. He raised the sword once more and plunged the sword into the head of the snake.

"Now all that's left is the sword," Harry said. "How do we destroy it?"

James looked around. "I'm not sure. How long did it take for Voldemort to come back last time?"

"Thirteen years, but now that the Death Eaters know about the Horcruxes they'd help him sooner if we killed him before destroying all the Horcruxes."

"So we couldn't kill him with the sword and then figure out how to destroy it later?"

"I don't know. It might work, but I don't feel like going to another rebirthing party." Harry raised the sword in frustration and clashed it against the stone, causing sparks. "How are we supposed to do this?" he exclaimed. He raised the sword once more and slammed it on the wall again. "Remus was right! This is hopeless!"

James watched as Harry continued to raise the sword with one hand and manage to cause sparks on the wall with just one arm.

"You're really strong," James said.

"What? What does that have to do with anything?" Harry demanded.

"No, no, no," James said, standing up. "You can raise that sword and bring it down with so much force, that you're causing sparks and you're only using one hand. Let me see it."

Harry handed the sword to James and he raised it with both his hands and slammed it against the wall. Sparks flew in every direction. "So are you saying, that we can just break the sword?" Harry asked. James nodded. "Listen! This is a very old sword! It's probably survived a whole lot! I highly doubt we can destroy it just by hitting it against the wall! We probably can't even dent it! We can't just continue to go bang, bang, bang! It'll make us weaker and it'll draw attention to Voldemort. He's still looking for us! He still wants to kill me, you know!"

James stared at Harry. "Look, either we try that, or we just leave the sword alone and let Voldemort live forever. It's the only option we have." Harry sighed as he looked at James. "It's not going to work."

"Let's just try." James raised the sword again and again, hitting it against the wall with all his might. To Harry's surprise, the sparks kept getting bigger and brighter, the sword started to bend, and Voldemort still hadn't shown up. That surprised Harry the most. _Where is he? What's he doing? Why isn't he here yet?_ Harry noticed that the banging had stopped. He looked at James.

"Can you do it for a bit? I need a break," he panted. Harry nodded and took the sword in his good arm and continued to whack the sword against the stone. The sword was bending further and further, but still hadn't snapped. Just then, they heard a bang outside the door.

"He's back!" Harry cried. He sped up his pounding as the door was pounded on.

"_Colloportus!_" James cried. He ran to Harry and helped him bring the sword down each time.

"It's cracking!" Harry cried.

"Harder!" James responded. They pounded on the sword harder and harder, their strength waning fast, the sword was crumbling. Harry stared wide-eyed at how much strength he and James had together, even though he was only using one arm. The sword was coming apart…it was breaking. Finally, with one loud snap, the sword gave away and broke in two just as the door was forced open. There was a loud, piercing scream of anger as Voldemort walked into the room.

"I WILL KILL YOU ONCE AND FOR ALL, POTTER!" Voldemort ran at Harry. In his rage, Voldemort had dropped his wand and grabbed Harry around the throat with both his hands. Harry coughed and squirmed, trying to break loose, but he couldn't think strait anymore. James picked up a broken shard from the sword and plunged it into Voldemort's side in an attempt to free his son. Voldemort howled with pain, letting Harry go. The Dark Lord pulled the half of the sword out and looked at James standing next to him. James ran to the other side of the room, picked up his wand and shouted, "_Accio sword!_" The sword piece in Voldemort's hand flew towards James, but he didn't want to catch it. He moved out of the way and tackled Voldemort. Harry stood up and joined the two on the ground.

James screamed as he was flung through the air and hit the ground, unconscious. It was now Harry and Voldemort. As they struggled, Harry kept glancing into the furious red eyes of Voldemort's, causing fear to well up inside him. He quickly tried to pushed the feeling aside, but found he could not. With each passing second, the fear became greater. The Dark Lord pounded on his broken arm and Harry screamed in pain. Voldemort flung Harry off and he landed right next to James, but remained conscious. Voldemort grabbed the half of the sword with the handle and ran at Harry. Harry didn't have time to get out of the way, so he rolled hunched over, exposing his back and Voldemort plunged the weapon into Harry's back.

Harry screamed a desperate cry of pain. He cried louder when Voldemort pulled it back out. He still couldn't give up. His vision was fading, his strength weakening. He looked up at the smiling Voldemort and cursed at him. Voldemort turned around to leave the room, leaving him there to die. Harry struggled to his feet, barely able to keep his balance. His head ached and his insides felt as if they were on fire. He picked up the other half of the sword. As he gripped it, he could feel the sharp side of the blade cutting into his hand, but he ignored it.

"It's not over yet," he said, trying to keep his voice steady. Voldemort stopped dead, turned around and glared at Harry.

"Why won't you just die?" he whispered menacingly.

"Because I was not meant to die yet." Harry raised the half of the sword he had and tried to stab Voldemort, but he blocked it. Harry tried again, but was blocked once more. He fought as hard as he could. He could feel the blood oozing out of the wound in his back as he fought Voldemort. In desperation, Harry swung the sword at Voldemort's hand. The blade made contact and with a sickening thud, the sword fell to the floor, still grasped by Voldemort's severed hand. Voldemort howled with pain as Harry raised his sword again for the final blow. He plunged the sword into the Dark Lord's chest, and fell to the floor, panting. He listened to the howling screams from his opponent as his vision faded and finally, all went dark…


	28. Sadness

**Here's the next chapter! Thanks for reviewing! It makes me smile! OKay, when you get to the end of the chapter, don't kill me...**

Chapter 28

Sadness

"Oh, my head!" James muttered as he tried to sit up. His whole body ached. _Why? What happened?_ James looked around the room and noticed he was in the same room as before. Suddenly, the memories from earlier came flooding back to him.

"Harry!" he cried as he looked around the entire room. He stopped dead, when he saw two motionless bodies lying in a pool of blood. He ran forward towards Harry, but tripped and fell to the ground. He crawled the rest of the way to Harry and picked up his head into his arms.

"Harry! Harry! Wake up! Wake up! Please!" James felt tears well up in his eyes as he saw his son covered in blood, barely breathing. "No, Harry wake up! You can do it, don't die on me, please, please!" His tears were falling off his face as he looked at his son's face. "I should have been there! I should have helped you! I failed, I failed….I'm so sorry, Harry…I failed…I failed…I couldn't do it….I failed….Harry…I'm so sorry! It's all my fault…please wake up, Harry! WAKE UP!" he screamed. He buried his face into his son's chest and cried harder than he had ever cried before. Grief filled him like a poison that couldn't be relieved. He watched his son struggling for life. "Don't give up, Harry. Don't give up!"

James knew that he had to get Harry away from here, but he couldn't bring himself to move. James was startled when the door was flung open behind him, but he didn't turn around. He didn't care who it was, though he knew he should care. He didn't look up until he heard a soft voice say his name.

"James? Are you all right? We've been looking everywhere for you. We need to leave. The Order is here and we need to—" He stopped. He saw why James hadn't moved at all. "No," he breathed. James saw Sirius drop down next to him. "What happened?"

"He…he was fighting…Voldemort…I couldn't help…I'm so sorry, Harry…so sorry…" James mumbled, still looking at his barely alive child.

"I'll go get Remus," Sirius said hurriedly, but stopped before leaving the room. "Voldemort's dead?" James gave him a confused look. He hadn't even thought about where Voldemort could be. Then, he realized that the body across from Harry was Voldemort. James didn't respond. He only said, "Hurry." He heard Sirius leave and James stroked his son's messy, dirty hair. "I'm so sorry you had to be put through this," James mumbled. _He's seen too much. He's been through too much. A teenager should never have to fight against someone as evil as this. They should only worry about how they are going to pass school or how to get a date. Harry didn't deserve this…he doesn't deserve this. _"HE DOESN'T DESRVE THIS!" he shrieked. He then looked at Voldemort. "IF YOU WEREN'T ALREADY DEAD, I'D KILL YOU FOR THIS!" James felt the rage surge through him, causing him to cry out in agony and anger. He turned to his son to make sure he was still breathing. James saw his chest rise slightly, but barely. He had to put his face right nest to Harry's to feel his feeble, unsteady breaths.

The door opened for the second time and Remus walked in. James heard him stop dead as he looked around the room.

"What happened?" James shook his head. He turned to face his friend as Remus walked towards him. He knelt down in front of James and looked at Harry. Remus was speechless. The tears welled up in his eyes. James made to move the hair off Harry's face, bringing Remus back to his senses. "Here, James. Give Harry to me. We have to get out of here." Remus sat there, waiting for James to hand him Harry, but James didn't move.

"James? Let me take Harry."

"No." Remus stopped.

"No?"

"Let me take him. Let me carry him."

"No, James. You're too tired. Give him to me."

"NO!" James shouted. "I'm his father! I take him!" Remus looked into the hazel eyes of James, giving him a new meaning for the word stubborn. James was determined not to let go of Harry. Deciding it was more important to get Harry out quickly than it was who carried him, Remus consented. He helped James stand up and walked toward the door, picking up the wand he saw on the ground, recognizing it as James' wand. He led James down the hallway towards where the rest of the teenagers were.

Hermione fainted at the sight of Harry and caused Ron to fall backwards to the ground, as he was injured and couldn't have caught her. Ginny was unconscious, being held by Sirius. Sirius looked disheveled and weak, but still managed to hold Ginny, though every part of his body was telling him to drop her. Draco was leaning on the wall, keeping all weight off his right leg and Lily was panting with pain as she sat on the ground. Tonks was in the room as well. She stared at Harry as if he was a foreign object she had never seen before. Remus cut her off from asking any questions.

"Come on, this way."

* * *

James was in such a daze over Harry that he did not know how long they had been at Hogwarts. He was sitting in Remus' office. School was still going on, but all classes had been canceled. The students in the school didn't know why. They only knew that Harry was back at school, but they knew nothing of his condition.

There was no one else there. He had snuck out of the Hospital Wing and went to Remus' office, hoping he was there, but found otherwise. James supposed that was just as well, for now, he felt like he wanted to be alone. Harry was still struggling to stay alive and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He stared into the fireplace. He was numb with grief, pain, and anger. He couldn't think strait and didn't want to.

Just then, the door opened and someone screamed. "Oh! James! You scared me. What are you doing here?" James shrugged. "I can't be in the same room as him."

Remus sat down on the chair across from James and looked sadly into his eyes.

"I was looking for you. There's a few things you need to know." James looked at Remus, sadness pouring out of his eyes. Remus seemed to be in the same state as James, but was trying to hide it, to no avail.

"What do I need to know?"

Remus drew in a deep breath and held it in a second before letting it go. "James, I know this probably isn't the best time to say this, but we figured out how to send you, Sirius, and Lily back to the past. We have also discovered that you will not remember anything that has happened here. It will be like a dream that you can barely remember." James' head shot up and looked angrily into Remus' eyes. "It's for the best. Now, nothing will change. Everything will be the way…the way it's supposed to be."

"NO! I have to remember! I have to know how I can stay alive to help Harry! This is not the way things are supposed to be! Harry is not supposed to go through all this! Harry should have both his parents his whole life, which is supposed to be way longer than seventeen years! We have the chance to change it! We have the answers! We can do it! Why won't you let us?" James shouted.

Remus looked as calmly as he could into James' eyes. "James, there's more. It's about Harry. He…he's probably not…going to—" James grabbed Remus' shoulders and shook him. "NO! NO! NO! You're lying! Don't lie to me, Remus!"

Remus took James off him and said, "Harry will die."

"It wasn't any funnier the second time, Remus. Tell me the truth."

"You will go back to the past tonight no matter what, do you understand me?"

"What? Harry won't recover in just one day! I need to see him when he's better!"

"Then you will have to wait three years. You will then see your son again as healthy as he could be. Harry is expected to live only a few more hours, so I think you should say goodbye. You didn't get a chance to last time. I suggest you make the most of it this time."

James looked at the floor. The anger and grief was welling up inside again. He dropped to his knees and cried out. Remus knelt next to his friend and wrapped his arms around him, letting him cry on his shoulder.

"It's just not fair!"

"I know, I know it's not fair, but Harry really wasn't always miserable," Remus said. "I have seen him smile, James. He loves to hang out with his friends, he loves to play games, he loves to laugh. He loves Quidditch and loves flying. He does have things to be happy about, James. His life isn't totally miserable. He loves hearing stories about you and Sirius at school. And I think, with all that he's been through, it's incredible that he can still love." Remus had noticed James had calmed down a bit and pulled away. "Come on. Let's go see Harry, alright?"

"I'll be there in a minute. I'm not ready yet." James looked back into the fire and thought about what Remus had just told him. He was so glad that Harry did have things he could be happy about. It was true. His son was incredible. Too bad he wouldn't be there for it all. _No! Don't think about that. Just be grateful for the time I do have with him._

James stood up, but didn't leave yet. He looked around the office and thought about what it would be like to go back to the past and not remember any of this. James really didn't like that thought. He'd just turn into the boy he was before. Sure, he did have hard times and he had to fight Voldemort, but he didn't do it on a regular basis. He'd only done it twice before this. His biggest worry would be Lily leaving him and he wouldn't remember anything about how wonderful his boy is. That thought killed him the most. Forget Harry? He couldn't do that. He had to do something so he could remember. He could write it down, but surely Remus knew him too well for that. What else was there? He could hide something somewhere obvious so he could find it? No, in the seventies, it wouldn't be there yet. Admitting defeat to being able to remember anything when he went back, he turned and left the office for the Hospital Wing.

* * *

"James! Where were you?" Lily asked, as she and Sirius ran up to him.

"Remus' office," he answered dismissively. "Where's Harry?" Lily pointed to a bed that was separated from the rest by temporary walls. "His friends are in there right now. I don't think we should intrude yet."

"They better hurry. We're leaving tonight."

"Leaving?" Sirius asked.

"We're going back."

"But what about Harry?" Lily asked. James just looked at the ground.

"No," Lily cried. James pulled her to him, patting her on her back gently. Sirius looked at James with a haunted look of despair.

"I'm sorry," he mouthed. No words would come. Lily sat there a few minutes before she brought her head up and said, "At least we can change it. We can stop this from happening."

"No, Lils. We won't."

"What?" she said, pulling away.

"When we go back, we won't remember any of this. That's what Remus said."

"No! We have to! Harry doesn't deserve this!"

James attempted successfully to cheer Lily up somewhat by telling her what Remus had told him. By the time he was done, Hermione, Ginny, and Ron were walking towards them. Ron's face was ashen as he held Hermione's hand. James was afraid if she wasn't holding Ron's hand, she would fall over. Ginny was staring before her in a trance. She was hardly aware of where she was or who she was heading for.

"Oh, sorry," she mumbled without even seeing who she had run into. James stared after the three as they left the Hospital Wing. After they turned the corner, James rushed to the side of Harry's bed, but stopped suddenly at the sound of a voice beside him.

"Be careful and don't do anything stupid. You only have a few minutes before you have to leave." James looked up to see an elderly lady who he supposed was the matron in the Hospital Wing.

James nodded, and then turned to Harry. His breathing was more ragged and shallow than it had been before. He felt Lily next to him as she grabbed his hand.

"I can't believe it," Lily whispered.

"It'll be all right," James assured her.

Lily shook her head. "That's not what I meant. I can't believe that we're here now. We're there for his birth, but then we all died. Now, despite the fact we're dead, we're here to see him…" she trailed off, but they knew what she meant. James didn't know what to say. They sat in silence as they wallowed in their own thoughts. Just then, Harry started coughing and gasping, startling them all. Then, he fell silent.

"Help!" James shouted. "Somebody, help!" Madam Pomfrey ran inside the room followed by Remus, McGonagall, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. James backed away from the bed as Madam Pomfrey looked at Harry, then turned around to face the rest and shook her head. James felt himself grow cold. _Harry… _


	29. Back at Home

**Hey! Sorry about the delay! I had to get up early, go to four hour softball practices, then work outside in the yard for two days in a row! Then, today, I was feeling sick so I couldn't work on the chapter much, but I finally finished it! ok here's the next chapter! Enjoy!**

Chapter 29

Back at Home

"James, come on. We need to go home," Sirius said. James didn't even acknowledge Sirius' presence. He continued to stare at the lifeless figure lying on the bed in front of him.

"I don't think this will help," Sirius said. "But, when we go back we'll forget what happened here so you won't feel this pain."

"I want to remember," James said simply. "No matter what feelings come with it."

Sirius stared at James. He hated seeing his friend so upset. He could hardly ever remember a time when James was even close to feeling this upset.

"Come on, Prongs. It'll be all right. You'll see."

"I can't get up. I can't move. I have to stay here."

"Moony will get you to come." Sirius stood up to leave but didn't move towards the door. "James, it kills me to see you like this! If I could do anything to change this, you know I would, but the face is, I can't. You can't. Lily can't. Please, James. Everything will be fine. You'll see."

"No, it won't. We've already seen what's to happen and it's not okay. We're all dead."

"James! Your son defeated Voldemort! He killed the most evil being on earth! That's something even Dumbledore couldn't do! Harry James Potter did what was thought impossible! James look at me--no, look at me! The most important thing that we learned from the future is that your son loved you more than anything! Every memory, every story, every picture with you in it was held dear to him! That's all that matters."

James looked up at Sirius, his eyes held tears that refused to fall. "I know you're right, Sirius, but I just don't want to abandon everything that's happened here."

"No, James. Listen, every time a man is about to become a father, he's worried whether or not their child will love them or if he'll be a good father. You know the answer to that question, James. You _know!_ It doesn't matter if you can remember when we go back. No one's going to quiz you about the future!" Sirius grinned. James had to give a weak smile at that. "You know, Padfoot, you're probably the only person who can stick a humorous comment into a miserable conversation." Sirius took an exaggerated bow then asked, "Are you ready to go now?"

James looked at Harry. He looked so peaceful. Helooked as if he were only sleeping. James sighed. "I guess I have no choice, huh?" James stood up and followed Sirius to the Headmistress's office. Remus and Lily were standing next to each other behind McGonagall.

"Potter, Black, now that you have arrived, I believe we had better begin this. The Minister of Magic will be here soon. Remus will be casting the spell." As if on cue, Remus stepped forward and looked forlornly at James and Sirius.

"I have so much I want to say, but I'm afraid there isn't enough time in the world to say it all. I will miss you both more than you could ever imagine. You too, Lily. I'm so glad Harry got to meet you three. I'm also glad you to go meet him. He is--was an amazing young man and a powerful wizard." Remus stopped and walked forward toward the three and embraced them. After a few minutes, he realized what they were there for.

"Right, well, I guess we should get on with it." Remus raised his wand and pointed it at the three as he fought the tears that were threatening to fall. He opened his mouth and whispered, "_Peragro temporis," _He watched as a swirling red and black cloud engulfed James, Lily, and Sirius and the finally disappeared.

* * *

"Ouch!" James said as he landed on the hard ground."

"Get off of me, James!" Sirius called.

"Lily! Where is she?" James said.

"I'm here, James."

"As am I," a softvoice broke through.The three looked up into the eyes of their school's headmaster.

"Professor Dumbledore! Whathappened? How did we get here?" James asked as he and his companions stood up

"I would like to know the same thing, Mr. Potter. You three have been missing for almost a month."

"What?" the three exclaimed at the same time.

"You don't remember?" Dumbledore asked incredulously.

"The last thing I remember is Voldemort standing around me, casting some spell and swirling black and red smoke surrounding us."

"I see. So you have no idea where you have been?" They nodded.

"That's very interesting." Dumbledore paused to think, and then continued. "Perhaps you three should go to the Hospital Wing to make sure everything is alright. I will contact Mr. Lupin and Mr. Pettigrew and let them know you have safely returned.

"I feel fine!" Sirius called. "I don't need to go to the Hospital Wing!"

"It's just a precaution, Mr. Black. We need to be absolutely sure you three are alright. I will come to see you in a few minutes."

The three grudgingly walked toward the infirmary. Right as they reached the doors, they ran into two other people.

"Sirius! James! Lily! Where in the world have you been?"

"Remus, get off me!"

"You too, Wormtail!" Sirius cried. When they were standing once again, Remus and Peter hit them with question after question. James calmed the two and explained as much as he could.

"So you have absolutely no idea what Voldemort did to you?" Remus asked.

"Creepy!" Peter added.

"I agree. It's really starting to bug me," Lily said. "I can't remember a whole month of my life!"

"Dumbledore has been working so hard trying to find you! We searched everywhere! We tried everything! We were so worried that you were...were--"

"Dead?" James finished.

"Well, yeah," Remus said.

"Well, we're obviously not dead!" Sirius said. "So let's go find something to do!"

"I don't think our healer has released you three yet," Dumbledore said coming up behind them.

"Professor, please!" James begged.

"We need to make sure there is nothing wrong with you. We have no idea where you've been."

They finally submitted and followed Dumbledore into the Hospital Wing.

* * *

The next day, Sunday, the newly reunited friends spent the day speculating on what might have happened to James, Lily, and Sirius and warding off others who were curious about what had happened to the three. Dumbledore was still wary and was unsure whether or not to send them to classes the next day, though he had finally given in to their pleas (even though he found it quite odd they were begging to go to class).

Their ideas about what had happened became wilder and wilder throughout the passing hours. Remus and Peter had also told them what had happened after they had disappeared. They hadn't missed much. The school was the same except for the fact that the Divination teacher was considering retirement, though James couldn't say he cared.

Their jokes and laughter went on to the late hours of the night when Remus' voice of reason broke through.

"Don't you think we should go to bed now? We have classes tomorrow."

"Aww! Moony! It's Defense Against the Dark Arts. We don't need to show up for that class on time! We know everything you could possibly know about that stuff!" Sirius said.

"Still, I think Remus is right. It's our first day back. We've missed a month of school and we have N.E.W.T.S. soon. We need to catch up!" Lily said.

"Fine, then, Lils. You win," James said, faking an upset face. He followed Sirius up the stairs dragging his feet in disappointment, but smiled when he heard Lily laughing.

_Oh! What a laugh! _James thought. He changed into his pajamas and climbed into bed after saying goodnight to his closest friends and then closed his eyes awaiting the pleasant dreams he would be engulfed in.

But it was not so...

He was flying over houses on a broom with Lily. There wasone broom on each side of him, each broom carrying two people. There was also a broom in front of him. It was carrying a boy and a girl. The boy was shaking and accidentally pushed the girl. He watched asthe girl fell offthe broom andthe boy flew after her, trying to catch her...

"_Crucio!_" James heard someone scream. He turned around and started screaming as the curse hit him, but as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. James turned around and saw Sirius had stunned the Death Eater...

He sawthe same boyhe had earlier fall to the ground next to Sirius. Sirius stood up and faced the Death Eater. Just then, the hooded figure threw back his hood to reveal that he was not a Death Eater, but Voldemort. "No," James whispered to himself. He sawthe boyroll across the floor dodging a green flash of light coming from Voldemort's wand...

A very angry Remus was standing in front of him screaming at the boy next to him. "YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED! SIRIUS, JAMES, OR LILY COULD HAVE DIED! YOU PUT EVERYONE'S LIVES AT RISK! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS? HOW COULD YOU LIE TO ME LIKE THAT?"...

There was a sign in front of him that read "_Certain Death Awaits Anyone Who Passes Here. Turn Back Unless You wish To Face Your Fears And Perish_"...

The boy he had seen earlier appeared in front of him. "You should have been there! It's your fault I have this stupid life and this scar on my head! It's your fault I have the most feared wizard trying to kill me!"...

"You think you can fight me?"Voldemort laughed. "I don't. You wouldn't dare. Especially since I have possession of the two things that you care most about in the world." Voldemort waved his wand and Lily and a baby appeared in front of him, bound...

Voldemort grabbedhalf ofa sword with the handle and ran at the same boy. He didn't have time to get out of the way, sothe boyrolled hunched over, exposing his back and Voldemort plunged the weapon intothe boy'sback. Rage filled James, though he wasn't sure why.He ran at Voldemort, but couldn't get any closer.He was screaming as he watched Voldemortpull the broken sword from the boys back.

"NO!" he cried.

"James!" he heard someone call. "James!"

He realized who was calling. It was Sirius.He looked around, but didn't see him.He looked again and finally saw him coming into focus.

"James!" Remus cried. "What's wrong?"

"Thatmust have been some nightmare!" Siriussaid. Jamessat up and pulled his glasses on.

"No, it was too real to be a nightmare," he said shakily.

"Do you think it had anything to do with last month?" Remus asked. James looked at Remus, then at Sirius. "If it does, we've forgotten a lot of stuff. A lot of important things. There were Death Eaters and Voldemort and other people I've never seen before, though they all seemed slightly familiar. It was awful..."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Peter asked.

"No, no not really. What time is it?"

"It's almost six," Sirius answered, still a bit worried about James.

"I think I'll just stay up then."

"I'll stay with you," Remus offered.

"I will too," Sirius added and Peter nodded to show he would be willing as well.

"No, you can go back to sleep if you want."

"Well, after you get woken up by a screaming friend, it's kind of difficult to get back to sleep!" Sirius said, grinning. James didn't return the smile, causing Sirius' smile to vanish quicker than you could say Quidditch. He watched his friend as he stood up, dressed quickly and walked out if the dormitory.


	30. Defense Against the Dark Arts

**Oh! I'm sooooo tired! Softball tryouts today! well, this chapter is short, but I think you all will like it! Okay. Thanks all of you for your wonderful reviews! Isn't it just wonderful to be told thank you for something I've never asked you to do? hehe! Don't I owe you all cookies? Well, I can't make them now, my mom's making a cake for my dad to take to work for some thing going on there! I think that's enough babbling for now! Read on!**

Chapter 30

Defense Against the Dark Arts

James walked through the empty halls of Hogwarts as he tried to remember everything he had seen in his dream, not that he would call it a dream…it was a nightmare. Who was that boy who had been killed by Voldemort? Why did he seem so familiar? What was James doing dreaming of him? When did this or is this going to happen, if it is real? Did it have anything to do with the missing month of his life? James shuddered at the thought.

"If that was what my month was like, I'm glad I don't remember any of it!" James said firmly, yet, something inside of him was craving to know more about what had happened and what that nightmare was all about?

_"You should have been there! It's your fault I have this stupid life and this scar on my head! It's your fault I have the most feared wizard trying to kill me!"_ What was that about? Why was it his fault? Suddenly, a clearer picture of the boy appeared in his mind. He had emerald green eyes, messy black hair, and a scar on his forehead shaped like a lightning bolt. _Could he be related to me?_ James thought. _I know I've seen him before! I know I have! But where? _James kept wondering about the boy and his feet led him to the Great Hall. There were a few people there. James looked at his watch and noticed he had been pondering his dream for an entire hour. He sat down at the Gryffindor table, but did not eat. He was not hungry, so he stood up again and walked out of the room.

"James! Wait up!" James turned around and saw Lily, Sirius, Remus, and Peter running up to him. "I brought your books, Prongs," Sirius said, handing them to James. He smiled a thank you.

"Are you alright?" Lily asked. "Remus told me about your dream." James sent Remus a glare and said, "I'm fine. Let's just go to class now, okay?"

"Uh, sure." James walked ahead of his friends so he wouldn't have to see their worried glances they were bound to be giving him. He turned into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and sat near the back, which was unusual in this class, as he liked the teacher and the class. When everyone had seated, the teacher, Professor Crawford, commanded the class's silence.

"Today, class," he said. "We will be reviewing for our N.E.W.T.S. again." There was a loud groan at the subject of what would be happening in class today, but the professor continued as if he hadn't heard. " Who can tell me what Oneirogenic Mud is?"

James stared at the professor. Something was nagging at the back of his brain. He had heard that name before. Where? What was it?

"Sirius?"

"Huh? What?" he said. James turned to look at his friend.

"Your hand is raised. Do you know the answer?" Sirius looked up at his hand. It was indeed raised. He hastily put it down again. "Er – I think it's some sort of mud that causes you to have your worst nightmares."

"Very good, Mr. Black. Now can you tell me why it's so deadly?"

"You can't get out of it and the longer you're in it, the lower into it you sink, when your nightmare is over, you pass out and suffocate…" the entire class was staring at him. Sirius gulped. He never volunteered information. James' mouth was hanging open and Lily and Remus were dumbfounded that Sirius knew something they hadn't.

"Excellent! Very Good, Mr. Black! Ten points to Gryffindor. Now Oneirogenic Mud is most commonly found…"

Sirius tuned the professor out as he sunk into his chair.

"How did you know that, Padfoot?" Remus asked.

"I…I don't know! The words came out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying."

"That's odd. How could that happen? Do you think it has anything to do with the missing month?" Remus asked.

"Doesn't everything?" James asked. "Every strange thing that has happened has to do with that month!"

"There has to be some way we can figure out what happened to you guys!" Remus said.

"I hope we can find out soon because this is getting very annoying!" James said.

"Mr. Potter, would you kindly come up and demonstrate for me?"

James looked up. "Sir?"

"Yes, I thought I heard you talking. You really must be paying attention, as you have been absent from class for a month. Now, please come up here and demonstrate how to get rid of a boggart."

"A boggart? But a third year could do that!" James said.

"I know that, Mr. Potter, but it is my job to prepare you for anything on the exam and since you haven't done anything with boggarts for quite some time, I suggest you practice it now. Come to the front." James reluctantly walked forward. He hated his boggart shape. It was really a rather irrational fear, but it was his greatest fear at the time. After all, he had worked for almost six years to date Lily. James readied himself for the boggart. Professor Crawford opened the cabinet and out walked Lily. James heard some sniggering behind him and turned around to glare, but the boggart stopped him. Lily had dropped to the ground. There were gasps going around the room. James looked terrified. He could not tear his eyes from the form on the ground. His precious Lily, dead. He couldn't bear the thought. Just then, the boggart transformed into another body. It was Sirius.

"Sirius?" James whispered. He felt himself shaking. This was not what he had expected. When had his greatest fear become dead people? He felt his wand slipping out of his hand, but caught it.

The boggart had changed once more. It was a baby. _Why am I afraid of a baby?_ Others were wondering that as well, but all murmering ceased as the infant grew up into a mirror image of himself. There were only a few differences: their height, his eyes were green and he had a scar on his forehead. "The boy from the dream!" James whispered. He dropped his wand as the boy walked up to James and pushed him to the ground. "You should have protected me better!" he called. James stared as the boy towered above him. "You should have been there! It's your fault I have this stupid life and this scar on my head! It's your fault I have the most feared wizard trying to kill me!" The boggart kicked James in the gut. James cringed and rolled up into a ball. The boggart picked James up by the collar and punched him. "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" he cried, throwing James through the air. He landed with a thud on the ground. James looked up, waiting for the boggart to attack again, but Professor Crawford had snapped out of his daze and had taken care of the boggart. Sirius, Remus, Lily, and Peter were now next to James on the floor, blocking the other curious students. Lily was talking but James wasn't listening. He was watching the flashes passing in front of his eyes. When the scenes finished, he looked up at Lily. His eyes were wet as the tears bordered on falling. His face was contorted into so much pain and sorrow. He opened his mouth and said one word.

"Harry."


	31. Chapter 31

**Okay, this is the last chapter. I know I'm sorry, but yeah. Okay, now that it is the last chapter, I'm going to do what everyone else on this site does. PLEASE REVIEW! hehe ok well, I'm serious. I'm not sure about this chapter. That's why it took so long for me to update. I wasn't sure if it was alright, so I let some people I know read it first and they said it was alright. Tell me if you're confused or something. So yeah, i think that's it. TTY next time I put a story up here! (not sure how long that will be)! Enjoy!**

Chapter 31

Sirius stared at James. "Who's Harry?"

"He's my son." Silence met this explanation. His friends continued to stare as James looked off into space. Professor Crawford was trying to get their attention, but was failing miserably.

Finally, Lily spoke. "James, you don't have a son."

"No, no I do. He's yours also. He's dead. Voldemort killed him. It happened last month."

"You remember?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, I remember. We were in the future!" James was now standing and looked at his friends once, then ran out of the classroom.

* * *

Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were sitting in the Heads Dorms. Their faces were tearstained and their voices cracked when they had to use them. They had been sitting in silence the entire day.

The entire wizarding world had been informed of Voldemort's demise and Harry's death, though after hearing that the most evil wizard in the world was finally gone, one tends to tune out everything else. The wizards were so engrossed in celebrating the fall of Voldemort, hardly anyone had shown up for Harry's funeral, making his close friends angry and relieved at the same time. They knew how much Harry hated being the center of attention and they were glad he finally got a little privacy, even if it was a little too late. They hated the fact that everyone ignored his death because his entire life, they tried to find out every detail of his life, but now that he's gone, they ignore him.

"You'd think that they'd all have shown up at his funeral," Ginny said. "He is the one who defeated him."

"At the cost of his own life," Ron added bitterly. Hermione scooted closer to Ron and wrapped her arm around him.

"I know. It's not fair, but when has his life ever been? Especially recently," Hermione said.

"I had never seen him filled with such mixed emotions before," Ginny said. "He was so excited at being able to meet his parents, but was so torn because they had to know what happens to them and him." Ginny stopped talking and hid her head in her hands. "Why did he have to go? Why couldn't he be here with us? I miss him so much!"

No one knew what to say. They didn't know when the pain would go away or if it ever would. Ron looked from Ginny to Hermione. He saw the pain in their faces and wondered if his face showed that much hurt. He suddenly stood up and walked toward the door.

"Ron! Where are you going?"

"You know where I'm going," he answered. He left the castle and walked to the spot where they had been twice in the past two years. They had come her last year to bury Professor Dumbledore. This year, they did the same to Harry. Ron didn't know if he liked it that much or not. He knew that Harry had always thought of Hogwarts as his home, but did he want to be buried here? Ron really couldn't think of anywhere else he could have been buried, except for next to his parents, but Ron didn't know where that was.

He knelt down next to the mound of dirt on the ground covering his best friend's body. He looked at the tombstone at the head of the grave.

_Harry James Potter _

_Beloved Son, Godson, and Friend. _

There was more, but Ron didn't read it. His mind drifted through the memories he had of Harry. Every time they laughed, every time they fought, every time they worried. His stubborn, courageous, loving, respectful, amazing friend was now gone. Ron had to admit to himself that he knew Harry wouldn't be around for very long, but he had always pushed those feelings away. He refused to believe it then, and refused to believe it now, despite the fact he was already gone.

Ron's thoughts drifted to the small funeral. He thought of the people who had been there. Most of the students were there, Ron's whole family, the teachers, the Order of the Phoenix, and surprisingly, Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape, though they stood in the back and made a quick exit when they had been spotted by a few of the students. Ron had found them afterwards and had promised them, in honor of Harry, that he would try to convince the Order that they were on the good side. Everything in Ron's being told him to kill them right then for causing Harry so much pain, but refrained himself because Harry had been willing to give them a second chance.

Ron looked around the grounds, thinking about every time Hermione, Harry, and he had walked across the grounds, for fun or to solve another part of a puzzle. Ron felt a silent tear trickle down his face. He'd never get to graduate with his best friend. Ron collapsed all the way to the ground and laid there, is hot tears wetting the soil.

"Oh, Harry! Please come back! Please come back! I need you! Hermione needs you! Ginny needs you! She loves you, Harry! Please! You're not supposed to die! You can't! You're too good a person to die! I need you here! You can't leave us!" He continued to sob. He had never done anything like this before, but he had never lost his best friend before either. He closed his eyes and continued to think of everything he could remember about Harry.

The next thing he knew he was opening his eyes in his bed, looking up at Hermione and Ginny.

"No! Let me go back!" he cried, moving himself to stand up, but Ginny and Hermione held him down.

"Ron, it's cold outside."

"It's cold wherever I go! Harry's not here! He's out there! All alone! I need to go be with him! He needs me…"

"Ron, snap out of it!" Ginny screamed. "He's dead! He's gone! He doesn't need you! He doesn't need Hermione! He doesn't need me! He's stone cold dead! He will never speak to us again and this time it's not because he's mad at us! He is D-E-A-D dead! Got it?" Ginny turned around and ran off screaming at herself.

Ron stared after her, and then looked at Hermione. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make her upset."

"Why are you apologizing to me? Ron, we all miss Harry. I think you should go talk to her."

Ron nodded his head, but didn't move. Hermione sat on the bed and grabbed Ron around the neck and started sobbing. After getting over the shock of the sudden movement, he wrapped his own arms around Hermione and patted her back. He could feel the tears coming again and didn't fight them. He let them fall down and join Hermione's.

* * *

Ginny was sitting next to the open window looking out over the grounds of Hogwarts. It was now night time and the moon was high in the sky. _Harry, where are you?_ She asked the heavens. _I need you here, Harry. I have nothing to look forward to anymore. I need you. You can't leave me! I need you! You're everything to me! Please, don't go! Please stay! I can almost hear you , but your still not here! Please, just allow me to hear one more word from you! I need to hear your voice! I miss you terribly! Ron and Hermione are awful because you are gone! We all need you! I just yelled at Ron because…I don't know why! I need you so badly! I can't take it anymore! _

Ginny stood up and started grabbing anything she could. She didn't care what it was. She threw it on the ground, against the wall and out the window. Her tears were falling like torrents of rain. She let out a scream of agony and plunged onto her bed. She heard the thunder roll outside and the rain suddenly fall. _How perfect! The weather finally matches my mood._ She looked out at the rain, and then leaned out the window. She let the rain hit her face and wash down her body. The icy water washed away her tears each time a new one fell. She then ran from the room, through the common room, and outside. She ran to the lake and stood shivering in the rain. She was now fully soaked as she looked over the lake.

"HARRY!" she screamed, hoping for a response, but not expecting it. There was a great flash of lightning and a loud clap of thunder. Her sobs grew louder and louder, though you couldn't hear them. Just then, she felt a hand on her shoulder and she whipped around, her wet hair sticking to her face. When she saw who it was, her knees gave out, but the person in front of her caught her.

"It can't be…" she whispered.

"What can't be?" the boy asked.

"H-Harry?"

"Yes, it's me. Why are you so shocked to see me?" he asked, wiping Ginny's hair from her face.

"You—you're dead."

"What? When did I die?" Harry's eyes were filled with confusion as he looked down into Ginny's beautiful eyes.

"Not too long ago. Voldemort killed you," Ginny whispered.

"Voldemort? Voldemort's dead. He's been dead for years. Are you feeling alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine, but Voldemort died the same day you did! I'm not crazy, Harry!"

"Ginny, I'm not saying you're crazy. What I am saying is that my father killed him."

Ginny shook her head unbelievingly. "Harry, you're father is dead!"

"Ginny, you're scaring me. What's going on?" Ginny opened her mouth to speak, but she stopped. Flashes of memories she had never had before filled her head. Voldemort had been killed by a very much alive James Potter three years ago. Peter wasn't the secret keeper. Sirius was. Voldemort never called on the Potter residence on October 31, 1981. Sirius never went to Azkaban. Dumbledore didn't die. Harry didn't have the scar…

Ginny put her hand to his forehead and pushed his messy black hair away and gasped. There was no scar.

"Harry! Oh, Harry!" Ginny wrapped her arms around him and cried tears of joy. He never had to defend the sorcerer's stone. He never fought a basilisk. He didn't have to do that horrible tournament. He didn't have to fight Voldemort alone. His parents were alive. Sirius was alive.

"Ginny, it's alright. Everything's going to be fine. Come on, let's go back inside."

Ginny nodded and wiped her face clear of the tears. The rain had slowed to a trickle and would soon stop. Harry wrapped his arm around Ginny's waist and she did the same to him. All Ginny could think about would be the reactions that everyone would have to have the Potters, Sirius, and Dumbledore back in their lives once more.

**Thank you soooooooooooo much everyone that reviewed! It makes me feel special! Okay, byby for now!**


End file.
